Rivals become teammates (and vice versa) at day one of WISC
Annie Tamblyn of Racquet Club/Huron High School, left, gives a high five to Maddy Frost of Travis Pointe/Saline High School at day one of the Washtenaw Interclub Swim Championships at Willow Run High School. (Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com)
Adam Whitener walked right past Jake Engelmeier in the halls of Willow Run High School during day one of the Washtenaw Interclub Swim Championships on Monday.
Heading outside to get some food between races, Whitener, the Saline High School sophomore-to-be who took the high school swim scene by storm during the Hornets’ 2009-10 state championship run, completely ignored his former teammate.
Sure Engelmeier was a senior captain and a mentor to Whitener during the high school season, but now he’s a coach for Georgetown Country Club. Whitener swims for Travis Pointe Country Club.
“What, no love?” asked Engelmeier, with his hands raised, after the snub.
Actually, there’s no bad blood between Whitener and Engelmeier. Whitener simply didn’t hear him. At WISC, animosity between competitors is harder to find than a combed head of hair.
“He’s still a brother to me, always will be. I just didn’t see him there,” said Whitener on a day where he and the other swimmers competed against teammates and alongside rivals. "I think it’s kind of fun. To race the other guys that I’ve been on a team with, you know, just like a little bit of a rivalry.
“It’s kind of cool looking down and seeing Saline, Saline, Saline, even though they’re all with different clubs.”
This is Engelmeier’s first year not swimming since he was six years old. In that time, he competed for Georgetown, Travis Pointe and Forestbrooke.
“Travis Pointe had the best to offer,” joked Engelmeier of his free agent-like career. ”WISC is pretty relaxed. It’s all about having fun and as long as we’re cheering for (Georgetown) guys too, we can cheer and support (high school teammates).”
Day one of the 50th annual WISC - which by Thursday will have 1,550 swimming and diving participants between the ages of 4 and 17 - featured some of the best high school aged swimmers in the state.
Despite the deep pool of talent, as evidenced by Saline swimmers hanging out under the same outdoor tents as rivals from Huron in the makeshift shanty town on the lawn of Willow Run High School, the competition seems more relaxed and fun than your typical meet.
“It’s a lot of fun because we all know each other and we know how we swim,” said Annie Tamblyn, who swims for Huron during the school year and Racquet Club at WISC.
After a race, Tamblyn reached over her lane divider to high-five Maddy Frost (Saline/Travis Pointe). “It’s a lot of fun because we’re all friends just out there trying to compete with each other.”
Forestbrooke Athletic Club coach Pat Richardson, a Huron alum who just finished his first season swimming with Oakland University, sees WISC as an opportunity to get young swimmers ready for a larger stage.
“It’s not so serious between teams. It’s not so scary. Some of the girls can use this to get ready for high school and not be so afraid during the season.” Richardson said. “They know that they can race these guys, they’re not on some pedestal like ‘I’m racing Michael Phelps’, they’re like ‘I’m racing my friends’ you know? It gives them a chance to be more accessible to winning…there’s a lot more trash talking, but it’s all in good fun”
Richardson also gets the opportunity to coach his younger brother, Ian, a senior-to-be at Huron.
“It’s awesome. He treats me very nice, harder than the rest and pushes me further,” said Ian, who finds it comforting to see his high school teammates doing well, even if they are on rival clubs at WISC. “We all have a good time swimming against each other and we all look forward to when we swim with each other all on the same team.”
“It’s just kind of fun because normally it's so intense,” said Nicole Minzey (Dexter/Ann Arbor Country Club). “With WISC, it’s just kind of fun so it’s nice to compete outside of the typical high school atmosphere.”
Make no mistake, though. These swimmers don’t just turn off the competitive switch completely.
“This is our time to have fun, just relax and be ourselves, go out there swim and have some fun,” said Mike Fisher (Saline/Georgetown) “But when we get on the blocks, we’re all still trying to beat each other.”
Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by e-mail at petercunningham@annarbor.com, or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.
Comments
RobertinSaline
Sat, Aug 7, 2010 : 4:22 p.m.
This is such a wonderful program for local swimmers.
tredd
Thu, Jul 29, 2010 : 8:11 a.m.
@just - thanks for your comments and clarifications. If I had thought harder I would have remembered that Saline and Milan are based out of the high schools and thus have indoor pools. I'll come clean as well and let it be known that we have a child that swims for a year round club. Knowing full well that the organization does not have the inclination to change the way things have always been, our family practices self control in the following manner: our child has several "state cut" times year in and year out. Our child does not swim these events at WISC championships so that other children who are just getting interested in swimming, perhaps even year round, get to have the experience of finishing well and get/keep the excitement of swimming. At first our child "didn't get it" but as we have pointed out the hollow victories of trouncing a "summer swimmer" the message resonated and now the summer league is a time to swim with your friends outside of club and just have a good time. It has in no way impacted performance during short course and long course seasons and is one reason (I believe) we haven't seen the burnout in this sport that so many parents see when their children reach middle school and early high school.
just a homeowner
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 : 9:34 a.m.
@tredd, Saline and Milan do not have outdoor pools and are year round swim clubs. None of the other teams are like that. Huron Valley always wins because they have a big club. They had three relays score in one event, when few other teams could even field three relays. Which is fine. It's true that some summer clubs actively recruit kids to join for a fraction of the cost. Others have a waiting list, Huron Valley, Racquet Club, Barton Hills. I am disturbed that the summer league has yearround, indoor swim clubs. It's not right.
tredd
Wed, Jul 28, 2010 : 6:13 a.m.
aaparent - None of the summer teams have indoor pools. Swimming is big league here in AA. The way this goes down is that 1) as Dagnyj rightly points out, the biggest team gets most of the points. they don't traditionally take 1st place as a gimme but they dominate positions 5-15 (okay, slight exageration here but you get the point).and 2) where the indoor pools come into play is there is big time recruiting out of Club Wolverine and several of the other year round clubs (its like travel teams in soccer going to play in rec & ed.) In fact, many of the stars for several of he private club teams are not even members of the clubs but allowed (encouraged?) to come swim for a nominal fee of something less than $100 when it would cost thousands if their parents had to join the club itself. Why don't they swim for Buhr Park or Vets you ask? The answer should be obvious. I had the pleasure of staying in one of the older Jewish resorts in the Catskills several years ago and saw the photos of the summer basketball leagues that were big in the 50's and early 60's. You had college players out of NYC and elsewhere recruited to pay (for money heaven forbid) for summer club teams. Lacking the payment, my mind went to the lead teams at WISC and I thought to myself "some things never change." In all, if you focus on the kids, and ignore the poor behaviour of select parents, you see a lot of joy and fun in the league and it is overall a great experience for the kids.
aaparent
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 1:35 p.m.
which summer league teams have indoor pools?
DagnyJ
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 1:05 p.m.
Agreed with @A2reader. The team with the most kids, and the teams that practice indoors get the most points. (Which is one reason why I don't think teams in the summer league should be teams that practice/hold meets indoors.) The summer league is about fun, and friendship. You want big competition? Cover the winter club meets.
A2reader
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 12:40 p.m.
Thank you, thank you, for writing a story that gets at the spirit of the summer swim and dive season. There are always so many interesting stories to delve into beyond the team rankings. Does anyone really care if the biggest team wins overall each year?? The novice swimmers, the camaraderie, the "big kids" who humble themselves to do a "pencil jump" off the diving board for the sake of the team, John Dudley's long tenure, etc. are the real stories. We are lucky to have enjoyed 50 years of WISC in our communities. Thank you, again, for looking for all of the personal stories that make this event special.
DagnyJ
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 6:26 a.m.
Whoops! My bad! I didn't see the link to results. until after I posted.
DagnyJ
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 : 6:24 a.m.
How about results? Top eight swimmers in each event? Team scores?
Prometheus
Mon, Jul 26, 2010 : 10:06 p.m.
No Diving pics or info? The Ann Arbor News always had lovely pics of the 8 and Under Divers from Monday at Racquet Club. I do miss that a bit. There's nothing as cute as a bunch of 4-8 year olds trying to dive on a beautiful day outdoors. Too bad you didn't get on that wagon. Will annarbor.com be providing detailed results from the WISC Championships? There's a whole lot of local families/readers of this "paper" involved in these competitions.