The morning ritual

At a time when most people are either in bed or just waking up to start their day, a dedicated group of athletes are already honing their skills.

Wednesday morning, swimmers in Green River’s USA Swim team were in the Green River High School Aquatics Center pool at 5:30 a.m., starting an hour-long practice involving swimming fundamentals.

The program’s most dedicated swimmers meet at the pool three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The swim team is open to children as young as five years old who demonstrate some swimming ability, to high school competitors. Their coach, Randy Walker, walked along the side of the pool giving advice and timing swimmers as they made their way back and fourth through the warm water. Outside, snow continued to fall, blanketing the city streets.

None of the swimmers in the pool were old enough to drive and relied on parents for a ride to their early morning practice. Walker said parents understand the importance of their children having dedication and commitment early in life and how those principles transfer with them as they reach adulthood. Walker, who has coached swimming for more than 40 years, said many of his former students told him how the dedication they forged as swimmers helped them with difficult times they faced later in life.

“It helps young people become better adults and productive members of society,” Walker said.

One of the swimmers, eighth-grade student Samuel Quick, said the early morning practices are all about improving his form in the pool. He wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to the pool an hour later. Quick admits there are a lot of mornings he doesn’t want to go, but he pushes himself to go anyway.

“I try to come to all the practices,” he said.