Swimming With Sharks

Riverside doesn't do sports teams the way US schools do them. At home the boys can choose a sport to pursue each season. They'd join or tryout for the team. Practices would happen after most school days. And there would be a full schedule of games or meets set before the season even started.

Ben (Photo credit for ALL photos: Riverside coaches)

Here, sports are among the many weekly extracurricular activity clubs offered each term, which has its pros and cons. On the pro side, the boys can choose several clubs to join and engage in a variety of pursuits: athletics, drama, academic, and/or social. The con side is that skill level and conditioning can go only so far when a team trains together once a week. Many students are members of sports clubs not affiliated with the schools, and that's where they get more training time. I don't know if this is how all international schools handle sports, but I think this is aligned with the school system back in the United Kingdom. And Riverside is derived from the British system.

As for games or meets, those seem to come up more organically. Riverside receives invitations to send a team to tournaments or matches, and then the families are alerted by email. At least that's our experience. It's probably more predictable than that, but we're new here.

In the fall, Ben joined three clubs — swimming, running, and high school band. In early November we received notice that the swim club was invited to send junior- and senior-high swimmers to a meet* competition in Warsaw! (*Swimming events are not called "meets" here.) 

Ben and the teammates who planned to make the trip began increasing their workouts to prepare. And they went to the Riverside ranch for a weekend of training time, where they spent time stretching and strengthening in a gym,

Riverside's mascot is the shark. Which works especially well for the swim team.

improving cardio-vascular effort on some light cross-training runs,

That's Ben in the royal blue tee shirt.

Pity about the scenery.

eating and bonding as a group,

and, of course, training in a local pool.

At 4:30 on a dark, December morning, the team and coaches met to board the charter bus to Warsaw. It was a Friday — the early rise was perhaps offset by the fact that they got to skip school that day. International School of Prague invited Riverside's team to ride along with them to share costs, so they met at ISP's campus.

They went right to the pool to warm up and settle in.

Pool at the American School of Warsaw

Pizza for dinner.

And then off to tuck in at the hotel.

Saturday morning

Saturday's schedule

Participants in the competition included Krakow International School, The British School of Warsaw, Anglo-American School of Moscow, American School of Warsaw, ISP, and Riverside.

Coach Fernando with the Riverside Sharks

The Riverside team competed, and a couple of Sharks earned several medals. And, most important, the swimmers enjoyed themselves and time with each other.

Unfortunately, they did NOT have a chance to see anything other than the Warsaw school and their hotel. ISP had to return to Prague for an event on Sunday, which meant the group had to get back on the bus right after the competition and head back to Czechia. (Obviously this was disappointing, but several of these kids — including Ben — had the chance to get back to Poland later in the school year for a cultural trip to Krakow.)

Regardless, they didn't let that dampen their moods.

Well done, Sharks!