Eagles,
Congratulations. Last night, you showed up. You swam the meet of a lifetime—all sixty-two of you. At the beginning of the year, at our kick off brunch, I said there is no way we could win a meet with fifteen or twenty-three people in the water alone. I believe to swim a perfect meet in the water alone is an impossibility. It takes a team—guys screaming their heads off on the sidelines, making posters, wearing their school colors and feeling exhausted at the meet’s end having spent their last ounce of energy in support of the guys in the pool, the guys they swim alongside with every day at practice and every week at duel meets. And while we didn’t win the banner, we did swim the perfect meet at finals last night. Records broke, times dropped, and seeds were beaten over and over again. As Joe Viola said, “You guys swam out your minds”. It was perfect. I was thrilled.
Winning the banner is clearly something every team wants, especially for our seniors every year. I’ve been on teams that have won it and teams that have not, and so will all of you. But the banner doesn’t define a team or its greatness. We won second, and yet I can say confidently that this 2009 team is a team that will be remembered as one of Gonzaga’s greatest— All Americans, record holders, consistent personal bests, constant hard work in practice from lanes one to six and a sense of brotherhood that clearly other teams just don’t have.
You left it all in the pool last night. That’s all you can ask from any athlete and any team.
We have Metros in two weeks, one more shot to swim “out of our minds” and prove our greatness again, two more weeks to support each other and get it done. And we can. And we will.
You guys should be proud of yourselves. You’ve accomplished something big. And you’ll continue to accomplish even bigger things. You’re Eagles. That’s what you do.
Coach Dave
