Senior Day.... the final season

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

“Do you realize we were just 8 years old when we met at YMCA swim camp?” Zach said one morning as we walked to swim practice. It was our last year, we were the Seniors of the team and the season was in its twilight. It had not really hit me that our swimming career was rapidly coming to a close. Thinking back, I guess it was really hitting Zach. I think most of the time, I was still half asleep on our walks over. One thing about swim practice is that you can be as tired as you want, but once you hit that water your really only have two choices. The wrong one will ruin your day.

“What makes you think of this stuff?” I replied to Zach.

“Don’t know,” he replied, “just saying.”

We were not mad or anything, but we walked in silence the rest of the way. Thinking back, I probably hurt Zach’s feelings a bit. It was a tough time, and he was there ahead of me. It was going to hit me soon, but on this morning I was the jerk. The close of a very important part of our life, the foundation of what formed our friendship, was about to happen. Zach knew it was going to be hard. In my heart, so did I.

Our final season had not gone quite as well as any of us had hoped. We were squarely middle of the conference going into the final weeks of the season. We lost some really good talent the prior year, and Zach and I, and one other senior were just not enough to keep us in the front of the standings. The younger guys were making huge progress, and we were, as a team, stronger now than ever. We pulled off a good couple of meets the last few out, even edging the top team in a huge upset in the last meet . A surprising fast swim in the IM from one of our freshman guys shocked the swimming world, well at least our swimming world. It also threw us narrowly over the top. That same freshman also nearly broke a team record I set. In due time he would, the reins of the team were starting to pass to the youngsters behind us.

Zach was quiet after practice in the locker room. No jokes. No talks while hanging out in our suits. Nothing. Zach skipped breakfast and we both went on to our classes. We did not have afternoon practice, so Zach and I reconnected at our dorm after classes were done. Zach grabbed his books and said he had to study and went off to the library.

I was perplexed. Something was wrong and it seemed huge. I knew in my heart that our friendship was fine, but Zach was struggling with something. When he skipped dinner, I was sure it was bad.

“Zachary, I was a real jerk this morning,” I said that night as we laid in bed. “I feel really bad.” I called him Zachary when I was being serious. It was a secret code between us.

“It is just hard,” he replied. “There is no swimming after college, I mean not like now.”

“I guess I had not thought about that,” I answered. “We got to stay focused an enjoy the moment. We got a few more meets left and then the championships. I have no plans to let up now.”

“Me either, Rye,” Zach replied. There was long silence. Our eyes met as I looked at Zach. “I guess it is all starting to hit me,” Zach’s voice cracked.

For the first time in a long time the most awesome guy in my life started to cry. Not a loud outward cry, more of the streaming tears, wet eyes and sniffles, but emotion nonetheless. I was frozen in what I saw. My best friend in the whole world was clearly really upset. I went over and silently sat next to him. I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and we held each other. Zach pulled me into a hug and we embraced into both arms, Zach’s head on my shoulder. Zach’s tears flowed.

“I thought I could handle this, “ Zach whispered between sniffles. Growing up was tough and my best friend was both sad and frightened.

“It is going to be just fine,” I whispered back. “Nothing will come between us.”

Zach shook with emotion in my arms. Tears welled up in both of us. Minutes passed as we held our friendship tightly in the grasp of our arms. The salt of Zach’s tears melted onto my shoulder.

“We gotta kick some ass,” Zach finally whispered back, “We gotta go out strong,”

The beginning....

[shaulis]

STS,

This is the beginning of another great series.

Thank You for all the great writing.

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

“F--k man, I slept like crap” I said to Zach the next morning as we woke at 4:15 am for early swim practice.

“Dude, I am sorry I acted like a girl last night,” Zach replied. “That was f--ked up.” Zach looked apologetic standing there in just his boxer briefs, hair all rumpled up from sleep. I could tell he was really embarrassed about his episode of sadness.

“Seriously, Zach, it is really cool. I am glad you told me what you were feeling. I was really worried about you.” I replied as I wrestled myself from the warmth of bed. I stood up, wearing an old Speedo suit that had seen better days.

“Thanks man,” Zach replied and patted my shoulder. “Cute suit,” he added.

“I wore it just for you,” I said back. The material was well worn and stretched out, which was great for sleeping.

“I was thinking, we need a whole new look.” Zach said, changing the subject. “All of us seniors should wear out own distinct suits to practice. I think it would be really cool.”

“Awesome!” I replied. “Maybe even coach will let us buy our own competition suits, too. That would be hot!”

“Plus you get to buy more suits,” Zach smiled as he said it. “I know you will love that.”

“You know me…” I replied. “But really, these suits have got to be kick ass just like us.”

Zach grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist and went off to the bathroom to get ready. While he was there, I pulled out my tub of suits. I smiled at how big my collection had grown. I knew I had a couple of duplicates in there. Sometimes if I saw a really awesome suit, I would buy two or three of them. Since it was an Olympics year, I had been on a buying binge of the red white and blue stuff that showed up every four years. I pulled out two Tyr red, white and blue patriotic suits. Since Zach and I were the same size, it was cool that he could wear any of my suits.

“Dude, check these out,” I said to Zach excitedly when he returned, holding up one of the briefs. “I got two, we could start today.”

“That is awesome!” Zach said back. He took the extra suit off my bed and immediately slipped it on. He looked stunning, like a real Olympic swimmer. He checked himself out and tied the strings. “These suits are wicked!” he added, sounding like a Maine grown guy. Wicked in our world translates to anything really cool. It is a high compliment.

I almost went rock hard seeing Zach in the suit. I slipped mine on and modeled it for Zach. “That looks really sweet,” Zach offered. I could feel myself get sort of firm and the bulge was really showing itself. I think we both felt like real Olympic swimmers. “I’ll start calling you Aaron,” Zach added, referring to USA swimmer Aaron Perisol. Truthfully, I looked nothing like him, but Zach knew he was one of my favorite swimmers.

“So, are we going to do this?” I asked. “You in?”

“For sure,” Zach replied. “Get your stuff, we got to go.”

______________________________


“You remember our first Speedo?” Zach asked as we walked across campus. The air was crisp, and it was still dark. Other than a few students heading to the gym to work out, the campus was always real quiet at this time.

“For sure,” I replied. “It was solid Navy blue with some white stripes on the side. We thought we were so cool in those.”

“Yeah, we did” Zach laughed. “Remember the weekend you stayed over. We never took them off. All weekend.”

“Yeah, we even went to McDonalds wearing them. I remember that.”

“Remember my mom saying ‘If you boys are going to run around in swimsuits, you at least have to wear a shirt.’ ” Zach added.

“I also remember she made us take them off so she could wash them Saturday night and someone got all upset about it.” I added.

“Oh crap, that is so funny. I forgot that part,” Zach replied. We both laughed.

“We were some cool dudes,” I added.

“Remember coming out to my house the next weekend and we went with my dad on the tractor?” I asked as we continued our memory lane trip.

“Oh man, yeah. Same suits all weekend. Your dad was so funny,”

“Farm boys don’t wear swimsuits on tractors,” I replied mocking my father’s comments.

“Oh Robert, shut up. They’re just being boys,” Zach replied mimicking my mom. Zach then recalled how my mom gave us each a bar of soap and said you boys go wash off in the lake, and “take those suits off and really soap them up.”

I laughed at the thought of it.

“There we were, skinny dipping and washing out our suits. I think that was my first time skinny dipping.” Zach added.

_________________________________________

“Wow, cool suits,” Scott said in the locker room as we got ready. “And it is cute that you two match,” he added.

“Senior look,” I replied. I then explained our idea to Scott, who was two years behind us.

“But I want a suit like that,” Scott said.

“As long as you don’t wear it here,” I answered.

“Well,” Zach replied, “we got to see if the other seniors agree. And we should do this for both teams.” he added, referring to the women’s team.

“Don’t forget the dive team,” Scott chimed in. “I think it would be a cool new tradition. Seniors get special suits.”

As the other senior swimmer showed, we all got consensus about the idea, but agreed we should get suits that are more our team colors. We agreed to talk to coach after practice and check with the divers and women’s team. Even though he was not in the conversation, Scott smiled at our suit decision on school colors. He really liked the suits Zach and I had on and wanted one for himself. Truth is, the one Zach was wearing I actually had bought to give Scott.

“But I am keeping this one,” Zach said to me as we headed into the pool. “Maybe we can go ride the tractor this Summer in them,” He teased.

“I sure plan to…” I replied back with a sly grin. I was actually serious.

With that we jumped into our lane and began our warm up laps. We were early, so the lane was not full yet. Our early start meant a nice rest before we got into the heavy part of practice. It was speed drills today, which meant it was going to suck! I followed Zach, catching his push offs as he did each flip. He looked amazingly handsome under water in his Olympic suit.


To be continued....

[solarguy]

I love the bond these two guys have...true friendship. Its a rare thing in todays world. Thanks for all your hard work writing this story

[a speedo minded guy]

STS,

I kind of wished I'd would've been Scott or Zach. Sounds like you had quite the growing world. Mine was dull and boring compared to yours...

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

The women’s team practice started after ours, so they were usually in the pool when we finished. Zach and I wrapped up our warm down swim and hung at the wall. We were beat, our butts dragging from the killer workout.

“I f---ing hate speed drills,” Zach said. “If coach yelled faster one more time I was going to climb out and throw him in the pool.”

“The suck part is we get to do this all again at 4,” I replied. We sounded like a pair of old ladies. I looked around and caught Amy eyeing Zach.

“Look manly, dude, Amy is checking you out.” I teased him.

Zach and I lifted our tired butts out of the pool. Amy smiled when she saw our matching suits. Zach and I walked over.

“Oooo, cute suits boys,” Amy said as she reached out and rubbed Zach’s side of his suit. “Don’t you guys look hot.”

Zach smiled. He was so wiped out from the practice that a smile was all that he could muster. The part of him inside the suit was in no way ready to respond to Amy’s touch. We chatted for a while, then Amy got up to get ready for practice. Zach gave her a quick hug and she rubbed his butt.

“Have a great swim,” Zach said as they disengaged. She slid her hand over the front of him quickly. Zach finally started to respond.

“Damn,” he said. “She kind of got me hard.” he whispered to me.

“I can see that,” I said with a smirk. “A hand stroke will do that.”

“You catch everything,“ Zach replied. Zach looked amazingly cute when he was feeling aroused. He had this shy smirk about him, a cross between enjoying it and feeling guilty.

“I love these suits,” Zach changed the subject.

Scott joined us as we walked into the locker room. “Coach had me try a few adjustments to my flip turns,” he explained his delay out of the water. He was dripping wet.

“He kicked our butts,” I said to Scott.

“I know,” Scott said. He gave me a quick rub down my back. “You guys look hot in your new suits,” Scott added. “I’m really jealous.”

I decided I was going to buy another one so both Scott and Zach could have one. Since we were not using them as our Senior suits, we could all wear them. I even thought about getting one for Amy, and we could all look alike if we went to the beach together.

We wasted no time getting into the showers. We were all three ready for a good breakfast. Scott was fastest in the shower and was in his jeans when I got out. Zach took the longest.

“What you got on under those?,” I asked Scott quietly. I was slipping on a solid red Speedo brand brief that I would wear under my slim fit 501 button fly jeans.

“That’s for you to discover later,” Scott replied. “It will be a surprise, but I do like red under jeans.” Scott and I teased each other a bit while we waited for Zach.

Zach slipped on a pair of longer leg cargo shorts over a pair of green boxer briefs. He wore a sweatshirt over the top. He did not brush his hair, so he had that wet swimmer head look, which would result in his hair drying into this mess of unarranged clumps.

As we left, we caught coach on our way out. Zach and I told him our senior suits idea and he really liked it. . He tossed us a swim catalogue.

“See what you like,” he said. “You guys will have to buy them, but as long as they align to our colors I am okay with it. But, he added, it has to be all three of you guys in the same suit and I want to see it first.”

“Cool Coach,” I replied.

“Oh and Ryan, no white. I know you and your thing for fancy suits.” Coach added with a grin.

“I only did that once, Coach.” I replied. It was quite a lesson. I learned the hard way that a white suit and two hours in a highly chlorinated pool is not the best idea.

_____________________________________


“We should just go to WaterSports and see what they can get us quickly,” I said. WaterSports was a local swim store that I was probably their most loyal customer. They had an awesome selection of swimwear, and I knew every square inch of it.

“That sure would be faster than ordering them. There is not much season left,” Zach said. I swear that his eyes watered as he pointed the last part out.

“Zach, this really bothers you, doesn’t it?” I asked, “I mean the season ending.”

Zach stared back at me. I thought he was about to get weepy again. “Yeah, Ryan, it really does.” he replied stoic. “WaterSports is a great idea, “ he quickly added. When Zach changed the subject that fast he was really saying that he needed time. It would come out.

____________________________________________

The three Seniors got together and we made the trip out to the West End to visit WaterSports. Going to WaterSports was always fun. The owners knew every customer and they really liked to talk swimming. It was a husband and wife team. At the time they seemed older, but truth was they were probably in their forties.

“Hey Ryan, Zach, Rick” they offered as we entered.

“Hi Tom, Hi Jen” I replied for all of us. “Do you guys sell swimming shorts here?” I asked. It was a running joke. I can’t recall the origin, but it always got a smile.

“Well, Ryan, define short.” Tom replied.

“Barely past my balls,” I whispered in Tom's ear.

“That we can handle,” Tom replied with a laugh.

“You two behave,” Jen chimed in. She knew the joke.

We explained to Tom and Jen our idea. Jen absolutely thought it was the coolest idea. “Senior swimsuits, I love it” she said excitedly. “Tom, lets see what we have in the school colors. Be a dear and line them all up,” she asked.

The best part of WaterSports was that they had every suit imaginable. Tom lined up a good ten briefs that were right on with the university colors. We all contemplated how best to choose. We decided that each of us would pick two favorites. Any felt would be rejected. Once we had the favorites, if any got three votes they would be the winners. In the end, we had one suit that got all three votes, and two suits that got two votes.

“I got all your sizes in the one you all liked and I got all your sizes in this one of the ones two of you liked. Tom held up both suits. The one we all liked was a really bold statement of the school colors and looked really powerful. The one that two of us liked was almost a solid color with contract trim in the other school color. One was an Arena brand suit, the other a Speedo.

“Should we try them on?” Zach asked.

“No need,” Rick replied. “I know exactly what size suit I need.

“It would be great to get a picture of all of you in your Senior suits,” Jen said. “If you don’t mind, we can hang it on the wall of fame.” The shop had a wall that they displayed customers on in various swimming events.

Reluctantly, Rick agreed after Zach and I persuaded him. We went and changed into the top chosen suit. They looked awesome. Tom had us stand out in front of the shop as he snapped a few pictures. I think Rick was totally out of his comfort zone. Zach and I were having fun.
“That was so cool,” Zach expressed as we left the shop. “And we got awesome suits. Whether we kick ass or not, we will look good”

Tom was really awesome. He gave us two suits for the price of one. I also was able to get Scott his own version of the suit we had worn at practice earlier in the day. The three of us stopped at this really awesome burger dive and grabbed the worst lunch we could eat before afternoon practice. To top it off we ate fresh cut fries that would blow your socks off.

“Okay boys, let’s go kick some ass,” Zach announced to us as we finished up. Senior night was mere weeks away.

We were going to look awesome at practice. Unfortunately, our lunch choice was going to force us to leave it at looked good.

To be continued....