[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Jimmy didn’t sleep. He laid awake most of the night, first texting with Greg, then with Abby. Finally, late he replied to a text from Randy.

“You awake?“ Randy asked.

“Yeah, can’t sleep…“ Jimmy replied.

Randy and Jimmy texted until the wee hours of night, far too late than they should have. Randy was sure Jimmy was on the team. “No way you blow out a great 500 and not get on the team,” Randy said in one text. There was no doubt Randy was on the team, the only question there was varsity or junior varsity. Randy had a real shot at the top tier.

“u r in dude,” Jimmy assured Randy.

“u2” Randy replied. The conversation wandered from there. “What is your favorite swimsuit?” Randy asked as the guys changed from swim team to other topics.

“My red and white print Speedo,” Jimmy replied.

By the end of the text conversation, Jimmy had sent Randy a selfie picture modeling the hot swimsuit. “Don’t put this on Facebook,” Jimmy demanded. Randy thought Jimmy looked hot in the picture.

“Keeping this one private,” Randy replied.

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Jimmy was out of bed early, just a few hours after the end of the texting sessions. His eyes stung from lack of sleep. He had farm chores before school, which he finished up fast. Not well. He showered and put on his black and gold print Tyr swimsuit, adjusting himself in the mirror. His fatigued body surprisingly quick responded in a way he did not expect, but felt great. He teased himself more, which led to other self inflicted pleasures that come with his age, followed by another shower.

Jimmy got dressed. He slipped his Levi 501 button fly jeans on over the bold looking Tyr swimsuit, which he chose to wear for good luck to himself making the team. He put on the swim team shirt Greg gave him over the Summer, grabbed his books and headed out the door. He slept on the twenty minuet school bus ride. He’d also sleep through most of his first two periods of class.

Jimmy’s mind was not on his classes. He was incredibly tired, the lack of sleep quickly catching up with him. His notebook was lined with little pictures of swimmers. At least as best as Jimmy could draw them. He had colored in the words “Swim Team” in a variety of patterns and shades. He certainly was thinking, but not on algebra or USA History. Lunch came slow. It seemed like class dragged on and on. Aiden, Randy and Jimmy agreed to meet outside the cafeteria. They would all go together to check the results. As soon as the bell rang, Jimmy bolted to the cafeteria, making it to the designated meeting spot first.

“You are in,” Aiden said as he approached. Jimmy’s eyes lit up.

“How do you know?” Jimmy replied.

“I just do,” Aiden said, finally admitting he really knew nothing official.

“Well, guys, this is it!” Randy said as he joined the group. “Let’s go get the news!”

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Almost every guy from the tryouts was gathered around the window of the coach’s office. The office was a small room with no windows adjacent to the gymnasium. It was shared by all the coaches, except for football and basketball, who were the upper crust and had private offices of their own. Not surprising that the revenue sports got top billing, even in the small New England town. The door looked prison institutional, a beige grey color with a faux wire lined window that looked fresh out a 190’s episode of Dragnet. To the outside observer, it was a Spartan contrast to the otherwise well appointed school, almost as if they ran out of the new doors and stole one from the old school before it got torn down.

Taped on the inside of the window facing out were two lists. On the left was the swimmers who made the Varsity team. Included in this list were the former junior varsity swimmers who were being moved up. When all the dust settled, five of the try out swimmers would make the varsity team. On the right was the junior varsity list. The options here were greater, opening up eight spots for the JV team. Out of the twenty swimmers who tried out, thirteen made the team. Better odds than they all expected, but still some guys would walk away broken hearted.

There was hardly any space to see the lists as a dozen or so guys clamored for a look. Randy nudged his way in first, tucked between Bo and Jeff. He first scanned the JV list and gulped when he did not see his name. Bo pumped his fists, as he found his name at the second spot of the varsity list. Randy continued to carefully go down the list.

“I did it,” Randy blurted out as he saw his name. He was smack in the middle of the list, although the placement really had no reflection of anything other than how the coaches wrote the names down.

Picking the swimmers was the product of hours of debate. It was a very manual process. Each coach went through their thoughts and observations. The first step was to pick the top 13 out of the field, which would then be the ones who would make one team or another. All but one of the guys who wore anything other than a real swimmer’s brief did not make the cut. Tyler, the guy from Jimmy and Randy’s warm up set was out. In fact, he was the first one off the list. The one swimmer who wore jammers made the JV team, not that his choice of swimsuit made any difference.

“Congratulations, Randy” Jimmy said. Jimmy had not yet scanned for his name, standing back. He was almost afraid, he did not want to be disappointed, nor did he want his two new friends to see him lose out.

“Aiden, you got JV,” Randy said. “I thought for sure you were varsity.”

“Yeah, well maybe next time,” Aiden replied. He was clearly disappointed. As much as he wanted to be tough, his eyes watered a bit. While they were young men, they were also still growing up, and their emotions of youth could show up quickly. Aiden wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. His gut felt like it got hit.

Once they had the thirteen, the coaches put all the names on post-it notes. They stood at a whiteboard and shifted them around based on the ebb and flow of conversation. Aiden was varsity until the very last round, when they cut the list from seven to five. Last man out. Once the varsity team was locked down, it would appear to have been an easy process, but it really was not. As the coaches looked at the final eight, they weighed the future of the team. It was not just about the talent this year, but with most of the swimmers being freshman, they had to weigh out needs in the years to come. Suddenly names from the first discard made their way back on the board. Jimmy was a hot topic of conversation. His name went up and down several times over the last two hours of the coaching debate.

“Kid’s got potential, look at how he did the fly,” Coach Lisa kept saying. “Just three months and he beat almost every guy in the twenty.” His name popped on the board.

“He has never raced and he has lots of work on turns and his free was slow,” replied another coach. His name would suddenly fall off. Jimmy was not alone in the yoyo game of picking the JV winners.

Jimmy finally made his way to the door. Most of the guys were standing back, some licking their wounds and others on cloud nine. Randy was top of the world, Aiden not so much. Bo was his usual conceited self, saying nothing to anyone and acting as if he was simply entitled to his varsity role.

“I am really sorry Aiden,” Randy said to his friend. “You’re a better swimmer than me, you should have been varsity.” Kind words that still stung.

Jimmy never even bothered to look at the varsity list, no way he was there. He wasn’t. He scanned the JV list, reading each name down the list. At number 14 on the list was his name, followed by the words “See Coach Lisa.”

“What does that mean?” Jimmy asked Randy, who was right beside him, hand on Jimmy’s shoulder.

“I think it means you made the team,” Randy replied. “I mean you are on the list.”

“But why see Coach?” Jimmy asked. He was perplexed. Suddenly the swimsuit under his jeans felt tight, but not for the reasons that usually made it tight, it felt tight because he wasn’t sure he deserved to wear a real swimsuit, “Maybe I am not a real swimmer,” Jimmy thought.