How come your son doesn’t play basketball??

If someone else ask me this question I swear I will scream!! My son has loved water since he was 2 years old.  I always tell people “I didn’t chose swimming for my son, swimming chose my son”. My pride and joy has been on a year round competitive team since the age of 5, he has talent and is serious about his talent. If you have ever been to a swim meet, I don’t know one single swim mom that is thoroughly excited about giving up their entire weekend to watch thousands of kids swim, to scream and lose their voice or to sit on those God-awful bleachers!! Literally swim moms are cut from a whole different fabric!!

The toughest part of this sport is the lack of diversity in it, literally when my son steps up on the block I can spot him instantly because most times he is the only little brown boy I see! What’s even more discouraging is hearing his fellow(lighter) competitors tell him “black kids can’t swim” or “I am going to kick your ass in this race because I know black kids can’t swim” (mind you these kids are 10 and under) but my son usually brushes it off and has now coined the phrase “just beat me to the finish line”. What I fear the most is that the older he gets the more problems he will have, deep down inside I am hoping that it is just making him stronger but I have to be realistic……is it breaking him??

So back to the original question at hand….”How come your son doesn’t play basketball?” Actually he does, he also plays tennis, lacrosse, soccer, plays the bass in his 5th grade orchestra and is part of the community service committee at his school. So why is swimming his main focus??? “Just beat me to the finish line”