This summer led to a new experience for our family: swim team.
To be honest, this was about the farthest thing from our minds as we started summer with two non-swimmers. But our oldest was eager to jump off the diving board, and that required swimming the length of the pool.
When school let out, she got back in the pool with her instructor, a former college swimmer and the swim team coach. And on the second lesson, Coach Lauren thought she was up to the challenge. Across the pool she went, and…she did it!
After this first accomplishment, Coach Lauren had a few more ideas up her sleeve. She felt our little swimmer was ready for pre-team (highly-guided experience before joining the full swim team), and by the end of the next week, she was signed up for two events in the swim meet.
Like Kim said, this was new ground for us. We weren’t swimmers growing up, so competitive swimming was something we had only heard about.
In the days before the meet, Coach Lauren walked our swimmer through what she needed to know and prepared her for the upcoming meet.
You would have thought meet day was Christmas morning. This girl was PUMPED for the experience, and we heard about it all day. We got to the pool, picked up her event card for her assignments, and Coach Lauren was right there to give her a high five and get her ready.
Her first event — the 25 yard backstroke — was something this girl had never completed. Naturally, she was a little nervous, but Coach Lauren told her the first few events would be backstroke, so she could watch the older swimmers and decide what she wanted to do.
As the swimmers made their first turn in the backstroke event, she decided she was all in.
I need to go find Coach Lauren, she said.
She made her way through the crowd of timers, up to the edge of the pool where the coach was standing and proudly said, “I’m ready for backstroke!”
When the time came for her event to be called, she headed to line up with the other swimmers. And Coach Lauren made her way over to give all the swimmers a pep talk as they prepped for their event, especially this first-time swimmer.
We talk all the time about #leadsmall, but most of the time we talk about it in the context of church life. But Coach Lauren is a living example of how #leadsmall can be lived out in the every day.
It can happen anywhere where kids are. And it needs to happen anywhere they are.
If we’re being honest, Coach Lauren is the kind of adult we want investing in our daughter. She looks up to her, and she’s exactly the kind of leader we want her to look up to.
This is a good reminder to constantly be on the lookout in your community and in your church, for the sake of your family and the kids you lead. Remind adults to be looking for kids they can invest time into, and remind parents to look for adults to invest in their kids.
Beyond mom and dad and close friends, every kids needs a Coach Lauren.
