Benedict Day School Swim Team Shines at MAIS Swimming Championships!!

The Courthouse Racquet & Fitness Club 

This past Wednesday Judy and I took 25 kids from the  Benedict Day School (BDS) Swim Team to Jackson, MS for the MAIS (Mississippi Association of Independent Schools) Championship Swim Meet.  The meet was held at The Courthouse Racquet & Fitness Club.

Judy Hudson, Head Coach of the BDS Swim Team started the team 3 years ago and it has continued to grow in numbers every year. The first year there were 20, year two was up to 21 swimmers.  This year we have 31 kids on the team!   She asked me to join her and help out as an Assistant Coach and I've been really enjoying working with the kids.  Seeing their continual improvement is very gratifying.  Their form, balance, and body alignment in the water is starting to show through the twice weekly practices.  The other thing to note is just how these kids behave.  Having no children of my own I didn't really know the amount of patience it takes working with kids.  But the kids on this team are well spoken, polite, listen well, and basically act like small adults.  Their parents should be proud of them.  They're obviously doing something very right because they are a joy to coach!

The parents of the team are also very involved.  It's nice seeing them turn out for the meet and help with timing, getting the kids to their events and being overall great cheerleaders for the team.

The Benedict Day School kids came in 8th OVERALL in the state out of 17 schools - last year we placed 12th.  It was greatness!!!  There were over 1000 entries for the afternoon session of Grades 1-6!  Links for Elementary Grade RESULTS and SCORES. OVERALL COMBINED TEAM SCORES for Elementary and Secondary BDS took 13 out of 23 with only the Elementary age kids!!! That is impressive!!

Here are some photos taken by one of the moms.  Gini Mars is a professional photographer.  You can find some of her wonderful photography here:
gini mars photography

Hanging out in the tent!!

The kids wore their team swim caps all day!!

Writing event and heat assignments for the kids.

Warm Ups!  The BDS Caps Judy had made really stood out!!

You can tell that the kids had a great time!

Getting some direction from the coach!

Warm up starts!

Keep Calm and Swim ON!

Game face ON!!

Nice high elbow position!!