Being The Swim Team Mom

On every team, there are at least two team moms. The first is someone’s actual mom: the swimming equivalent to the soccer mom that comes with the Capri-Suns and Goldfish to celebrate victories or calm defeats.

While we all love that swim mom with our entire heart, I’m going to talk about the second team swim mom that every team has. This team mom is one of the actual swimmers on the team. They’re usually an upperclassman, someone who knows the ropes and is always a little bit over-prepared for things. If any of the following things feel like I’m talking about you, then you’re probably the team mom:

• Staying on top of the schedule: This includes, but is not limited to: when practice is normally, when practice is when it changes (we all know this can happen from time to time), when you need to arrive to get on the bus, and many more. Someone’s gotta make sure their teammates get to things on time, and that someone is gonna be the team mom.
• Without fail, you’re gonna be on the pool deck at either a meet or simply at practice and you realize you need something that you don’t have. This could be something as small as your hair tie breaking during practice or something as big as forgetting your goggles at a championship meet (I hope not that one). But you know who is going to have an extra? Your team swim mom. They are going to pull out whatever you need from their Mary Poppins type swim bag, and boom, crisis averted.
• Not only is the team swim mom there when you need something, they are gonna be there when you just need someone to be there. You need to vent a little? Go talk to the swim team mom. You need a hug? The swim team mom is who you call. Need some chocolate chip cookies? You already know who is preheating their oven.
• While the team swim mom who is actually on the team probably won’t be stacked with snacks like someone’s real mom would be, if you’re hungry, odds are they have a snack stowed away. It may be a bite from their own pre-practice granola bar, or a random applesauce they keep in their bag, but odds are, they won’t let you go hungry.
• Getting called Mom by your teammates. If you do any of the above things, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re gonna get a “thanks Mom!” from time to time. It’s just the way it is.

If you haven’t already figured out, I was definitely a “team mom”, especially by the time I was an upperclassman on the team. And, no, I wasn’t kidding about preheating the oven to make cookies.  If any of these things sound a little too familiar, then there’s a good chance you’re the swim team mom on your team too.