On Hurricanes and Mammoths

Mob Log Ber Kp 104It’s been a while since I last posted something and I’m not positive that my time with the Swiss Army is a great excuse. I did have a few ideas for new content during the last weeks and started working on several of them. But I have to admit that life in the army is different and writing wasn’t always a top priority. So for now an update on what I’ve been up to this summer before reporting to the Swiss Army and some things that happened during that time.

I’ve been assigned to a troop called “Mob Log Ber Kp 104-1” or simply the Mammoths. Compared to my first experience with the Swiss Army I did have a better time but I’m glad it’s over now. We still had to go through some training but it was more specific to the mission we had to accomplish during those weeks.

There’s really not much more I can share with you other than the news that put a smile on my face during the time with the Swiss Army…so keep reading for some swimming related news.

In 2009 I spent my summer working for my friend Coach Mark Hill with the kids of the Florida Keys Swim Club and helping the Coral Shores High School Swimming team to kick off their season. This summer I was again on deck with the CSHS as I was already in the Keys working with The Race Club.

Although I had to leave the team only a few weeks after the season started and with promising results in our first few dual meets I knew they’re going to have a successful season. They finished 3rd at Districts went on to Regionals and all did extremely well with the boys ending up going to States for two relays. At the Florida 1A – 3A State Championships those four boys represented the Hurricanes well and finished 13th in the 200 medley relay and 14th in the 200 freestyle relay.

At the end of the meet Coral Shores placed themselves as the best public High School in the state…Go Canes! Even with only the boys going to States this was a total team effort. But I still would like to highlight one of the seniors, Matt Herum. During our first practice Matt approached me to let me know his goals for his last season and tell me that he wanted to make the most of this last chance to represent the Hurricanes.

The day before I left the local Masters swimmer organized a small social at the Green Turtle and Matt (and his team mate Brett) showed up as well. It was getting late and people started to leave so I gave Matt and Brett a last pep talk and challenged them to show up for early morning practice the following day (morning practices were planned to start the following Monday). Matt set the bar high but the next morning both of them showed up and this was the moment I knew he fully committed himself and will succeed (same goes for Brett who also had a extremely successful season). He made States for an individual event, the 100 yard breaststroke. Just missing the Championships Final, Matt won the Consolation Final!

All of the seniors will be missed next year but our team is growing bigger and we have new people ready to step up. Coral Shores will rock like a hurricane again!

CSHS Swimming 2010
The CSHS Girls and I posing at a dual meet.

Like the CSHS Swim Team on Facebook. Check out the results from the Florida 1A – 3A State Championships.