I spent this past weekend at a swim meet.
It was at a big high school in New York and there were a couple hundred kids swimming in it.
Swim meets like this are long and boring. They usually run for about 4 hours, and there is a lot of sitting around waiting to swim.
There were so many swimmers entered in the meet that the kids couldn’t sit on deck because there wasn’t enough seating space, so on Sunday all the swimmers sat in the gym. They play cards and games and read and do other stuff like that to occupy themselves while they are waiting for their events.
About two thirds of the way through the afternoon session, the fire alarm went off.
There were kids lined up to swim on deck and kids swimming in the water.
The coaches and spectators looked around hoping for someone to just shut off the alarm and carry on with the meet.
But we were told everyone had to move into the gym.
Once we got everyone into the gym, we were told we had to evacuate the building.
It was 30° with some light snow flurries outside.
The kids were all in wet bathing suits. We told them to throw on their clothes quickly and get outside.
Some of the kids started to freak out a little bit because they thought there might really be a fire. So did some of the parents because not everyone knew exactly where their kid was.
There was a guy yelling through a bull horn, “PLEASE. REMAIN. CALM.” which, of course, got the kids even more crazy.
I started leading our team outside, and one of the other coaches and the parent volunteers followed up behind.
Both Number 3 and Number 4 were swimming in the meet.
I didn’t know exactly where either one of them was, but I knew they were somewhere nearby.
I wasn’t really worried. I knew there was no fire. I was more annoyed because this was going to delay the meet, I was really tired, and I just wanted to be done and go home.
So as I was walking out with the team, the kids were grabbing things to take with them that they didn’t want to lose in the nonexistent fire.
We told them to just make sure they had their jackets. Everything else would be fine.
Number 4 wasn’t with me.
One of the team moms who was trying to hurry her along told me about the exchange they had.
“Number 4! Hurry up! Let’s go!” said the mom.
“NO!” Number 4 said. “I can’t go yet!”
“Number 4! Hurry up! You have to get out of the gym!”
“NO! I’m not going without -”
Aw, I thought. She didn’t want to leave without me.
“– MY KNITTING!”
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hahaha! of course!
This is hilarious! I am also a coach/experienced swim parent and know EXACTLY what you mean about kids sitting in the gym for hours on end waiting to swim like 3 events at a meet that seems to span eternity. Although, so far no fire drills/alarms in my experience! At least number 4 didnt shout out for her IPad or other electronic device…so you are doing something right IMHO!