Wow! Sounds like a great day for everyone. As I read, I hope I find out how Laura did at tryouts.
Well, that may be part of my mood. I'm trying to be an adult about this and no sour grapes, but I am a mother.
Laura placed 14th. Two people ahead of her had to drop for scheduling reasons, so she moved to 12th. That puts her at 2nd alternate which means that she can practice with the team but not go to Games.
That part is all great! I am proud of her!
The problem is harder to explain, but I'll try. We have 4 age groups in our synchro team. There is an 18-19 group that also contains a couple of 16-17 year olds, Laura's group is 13-15, there is an 11-12 group, and there is an intermediate group which is not as skilled as the others. The 11-12 team is coached by someone who is about as type A as you can get, thinks that she and her family are way above everyone else, and does not have much concern about the feelings of others. You'd have to know her to really understand. She also thinks that the girls on her team are much better than anyone else in the club (except for her own daughter, of course). Her team did place 1st in Regionals for their age group and is headed to Nationals. Those girls worked their tushies off and definitely deserve that, but their attitudes have really changed since that has happened. Two of those 11-12 girls also tried out for Empires yesterday, and one of them beat out the best girl on the 13-15 team. There was something really fishy going on in the scoring. I know that that sounds like sour grapes, but it really isn't. If she had beaten just Laura, I would have thought that Laura had a bad day and this other girl had a great day. I wouldn't have thought anything else of it. There is no way that she could have beaten the top girl, though. I don't want to take anything away from her, and I feel like I am being a hctib, but I just know that it isn't possible. This girl scores last in figures on her own team. She has been in synchro for only two years now, and she isn't the next superstar on the way up. Something isn't right. All that still wouldn't have me as upset, though, except that I have heard that the coach now has an even larger head and thinks that her whole team is better than the 13-15 team. Next year, all except one 11-12 will age up to 13-15. Four of six 13-15 members will still be 13-15. "Super Coach" has decided that her team should stay together and stay with her. The head coach always lets "Super Coach" get her way. With the numbers that we have, this basically means that Laura and 2 other girls are getting shafted. The one girl, Grace, that could stay 13-15 (and who was beaten by that 11-12) already has an invitation to move up to the older girls' team. Laura and the other 2 were originally told that they would also be on the older team, too, but now the head coach has told Grace (just her, not the other girls or the coaches) that Laura and the other 2 will not be moving up. The other coaches all think that the team should be split differently and that we could have a terrific A team including the 4 that are staying 13-15 with 4 of the new ones moving up plus a very good B team of the remaining new 13-15's plus a couple of the intermediate girls. If "Super Coach" is allowed to keep her team together (now using the fact that the worst of her swimmers can outswim the best of the 13-15's) and Laura's group doesn't get to move up with the older girls, they really have no team to swim on.
Alot of this is politics. The judges for the figures are some of the coaches (including head coach and "Super Coach"), so it's kind of like Olympic Ice Skating where they pretty much have the order decided before they score. I wish that they could bring impartial judges in, but it is just something that you need to learn to live with if you want to stay with the sport.
That was long-winded, and I'm sure that I sound like one of those mothers who thinks that her children are perfect, but really that isn't the case at all. I don't want to see anyone hurt. I have already told Laura that she is not to say a single negative thing about the 11-12, because I don't want that to get back to her and hurt her feelings. Laura has even said that she doesn't know if she was better yesterday than that 11-12, but she could see that Grace and Meghan were.
My next task is to convince Laura to practice with the team, because it can only help her to get that time in the water. She is so worried about what is going to happen to her next year that she is already threatening to just quit. I am trying to help her keep it all in perspective. I am trying to not let her know that I feel the same way that she does about her getting the shaft. I want her to swim and be happy, and I don't know if that is going to be possible. I just feel so confused and mad, too.
Thanks for letting me vent. I can't vent to dh, because he just doesn't get it. I'm sure that my other friends don't want to hear it, but you can all just skip reading. I do feel better, and maybe the sensible coaches will win out in the end. There are 4 of them to 1 "Super Coach" and 1 head coach.
to all in need
That's great!
I've done that. Hope it heals quickly.
and 
to everyone I did read. Can't remember much right now. I need to find food, go shopping, clean and wrk on my co-leaders gifts. Have a great day everyone.
