The Heart Of A Team

Courtesy Robert Sullivan

So our subject today is sports movies, and that always demands placement of the critic. When I was a kid, The Babe Ruth Story, with William Bendix, fleshy and persuasive in the lead role, always drew me to “Boston Movietime” on Channel 4, as did the original Angels in the Outfield. Gary Cooper as Gehrig was a no-go as I was already a diehard Bosox fan. At least the Bambino helped us win some titles before we sold him away, even if the Bendix film gave the Babe’s Beantown seasons seriously short shrift.

Later in life, I lost my taste for the sentimental. I was a Bull Durham devotee, and even a fan of such as Caddyshack. My favorite sports movie might have been Michael Ritchie’s cynical Downhill Racer, with young Redford. Field of Dreams did not move me, I admit, and when Chariots of Fire went slo-mo, so did my pulse. If it came down to public school Brit tracksmen, I preferred Tom Courtenay stopping short of the finish line in The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.

If you bothered to ask me about swimming movies, which no reasonably busy person would do, I guess I would have said that I thought Lancaster’s turn in The Swimmer amounted to a pretty fair Cheever adaptation—no easy accomplishment—and I would never discredit Esther in Dangerous When Wet.

Documentary sports films? There was one I greatly admired: Hoop Dreams, about basketball. And now there is a second, and for those of us who tilt towards the natatorium, it should be required viewing. It’s called Swim Team, and has a nifty subtitle: To Level the Playing Field, They Had To Get In the Water.

I came upon this film earlier this year thanks to my wife, Luci, and it has recently come to dominate our swimming life—and, actually, our entire life leading up to a showing of the movie late this month. To briefly explain: Luci and I have three kids, and I’ve written about the high school- and year-round-team experiences of Caroline and Jack earlier in Swim Swam. Mary Grace, Jack’s twin, is also a swimmer on a summer club team, competing in the 50 free. She has swum the 50 fly twice, bailing each time 15 yards along and turning for home. You might say she won those races; she certainly finished first. MG is doing great at many things. She’s our Special Needs child, and at Horace Greeley High, Luci is not only a mom of one of the current Boys Team co-captains (that would be Jack) but also serving as the Greeley PTA’s Special Ed committee chair and basically learning what needs to be learned.

So, somehow—probably not from the cinematography award that it won at this year’s Wales International Documentary Festival in, I guess, Wales—Luci learned about Swim Team, which concerns a group of kids in New Jersey whose parents take charge of their local program, sensing that swimming, with a parent’s diligent help and tireless coaching, might improve the lives and outcomes for these at-need children, most all of whom have autism of a kind.  The film follows a season of the Jersey Hammerheads, and it’s a clear-eyed rendering, with hard practices and regular doses of tough love. I won’t spoil it for you, except to say that, yes, there’s a sports-film climax—this one at the Special Olympics nationals. No more clues. I suggest you do what the Greeley High kids are doing this month.

What, specifically, are they doing? Well, they’ve arranged with the filmmakers, Woodland Park Productions, for a showing of the movie in the school auditorium, and, please, all of you: Do show up on Wednesday November 29 at 7 p.m. if you happen to be in the neighborhood of 70 Roaring Brook Road  in Chappaqua, NY—maybe you’re visiting Bill and Hill down the street or something. The PTA took the reins on this event, then the Boys Team became a co-sponsor and the Girls Team (which just won Section I again, by the way) signed on, and now there are posters in the halls plus a post-screening panel discussion. Coach Mike DeBellis, a beauty of a guy, will talk about what Special Needs children have brought to his wrestling squad, and a guest star will be producer Lara Stolman, helmswoman of Swim Team. Donations will be accepted for YAI, a service agency for people with disabilities, which is a favorite of coach Meg Kaplan (who has an 135-20-1 record coaching the Boys Team, by the way). A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

The urging here is twofold, or maybe two-and-a-half fold. If you care about swimming beyond dropping your time in the 200 IM, seek out Swim Team and learn what our sport can be, for competitors and those who guide them well, when it is at its best. Bring your kids by all means. And if you are lucky enough to be affiliated with a school or club team that might be inclined to share this movie and subject with a larger audience, by all means try to do so. Take it from a guy who curmudgeonly prefers the Costner in Bull Durham to the Costner in Field of Dreams: Swim Team is even better than Dangerous When Wet. That’s saying something. Not sure what.