Well not quite all Summer long, but for the early part of it (Late May to the end of June) our neighborhood, along with others all across the country, is taking part in “Summer League”.
Summer League is an annual swimming competition between local neighborhoods and is open to children from 5 to 18. The neighborhoods are put into leagues based on past success and compete against each other every weekend, as well as train in the neighborhood pool during the week.
The Cypresswood Sharks celebrated their 35th year of competition this year and moved up a division to compete against teams like the Marlins, Hurricanes, Waves, Tiger Sharks and Hammerheads from places like Champions Forest and The Woodlands.
Like any sporting event in the USA, a Summer League swim meet starts (at 8am on a Saturday!) with a prayer and the National Anthem [Important note: always remember to take off your hat, face the flag and put you right hand over your heart at this point otherwise people look at you with accusing stares].
After the National Anthem it’s time for the team chant (Repeat “I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom” and variations of this many times...):
And then we’re off:
After a few Saturdays you quickly learn that having your own pagoda to sit under as 6 hours in Texas sunshine is quite hard work. However, to get a space you have turn up very early indeed. Even then limited space and many pagodas results in something akin to a Bedouin village in the desert:
[At this point its worth noting that if you are going to try and assemble a pagoda at 7am on a Saturday in Houston in the Summer, take a change of dry clothing for afterwards, assuming you haven’t smashed it into small pieces in a heat induced rage because you can’t work how the pieces fit together.]
As well as swim training and competing the teams organize social events (including a bunk-in where all the children have a mass sleep-over in a school gym one night) and a pep rally where trucks take the team members around the neighborhood throwing out candy to people:
So now we know why the USA is so good at swimming. They start a lot earlier and get a lot of competition experience before UK children have removed their armbands. Here are the 6 and under children lining up for one of their events:
