Nitro Swimming in Austin, Texas is one of the largest USA Swimming member clubs in the United States with almost 2,300 members. But that doesn’t mean they can’t make each member feel special.
For 23 seniors, this semester was supposed to be their final year of high school and high school swimming. Like thousands of other teenagers around the country, because of coronavirus-related lockdown, they didn’t get a chance to have many of those special moments like prom, the big graduations in the big stadiums, senior recognition banquets.
Nitro Swimming head coach Mike Koleber saw an opportunity to cushion the blow of those missed moments a little, and he and the Nitro staff seized on the opportunity.
They took the club’s annual awards ceremony, “The Nitros,” on the road last Saturday, and from sun-up to sun-down spent the whole day recognizing the team’s 23 seniors. They even surprised one of their swimmers who was working at a grocery store with his official Nitro Swimming Alumni shirt.
“Obviously, this has been a tough year for everyone impacted, but the Seniors have felt the biggest hit. So we wanted to surprise them with some joy, recognize and acknowledge them, and let them know we feel for them” said Koleber. “We mapped out the delivery route, hit the trail on Saturday morning and wrapped things up before dark. “We knew anything we did would not replace their Senior year, but we wanted to do something special for them to maybe help temporarily forget things, if only for a Saturday.”
While the moments for these seniors might not be exactly the same as the moments that classes before them had or classes after them, that doesn’t mean they can’t be just as memorable.
Watch the seniors get recognized below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0vyimwmKxY
CONGRATULATIONS ON A SUPER PROGRAM, you go seniors!
Great Job!!!! Nitro, Great way to send them out in style.
Beautiful story – great way to honor Seniors in challenging times. Favorite Swimswam story – made me happy and sad
Very happy an proud Nitro coaches did this for the seniors. If a swimmer wants no drama, play no favorites, hard working environment with great coaches – Nitro is the club for you.
love this!
This is pure class. Figures an Oakland Univ. guy leads the charge. Go Nitro!!
Wonderful thing the Nitro coaching staff did for their graduating seniors. Brought tears to my eyes. What a great program and tradition!
I’m not sure who got more joy from this. The kids, the parents, or us Coaches who made the visits. What a fun day.