Summer of swimming: DUSO Dad

Natalie checks her iPod while heading to the pool; idiot dad finger in the photo

Welcome to August. Two weeks from today, our athletes return for preseason. Summer has flown by in the blink of an eye. I apologize for not chronicling things better – as my lack of blog posts can attest. There are many reasons for this, but one that stands out has to do with the acronym DUSO. Stands for Dutchess Ulster Swim Organization. There are eight teams in DUSO, one of them the Hyde Park Stingrays. I am a Proud Swim Dad, as my daughter Natalie just completed her second summer as a Stingray.

Youth swimming is a time-consuming affair. We see the Red Fox Aquatic Club (formerly the Marist Swim Club), year-round in and around the McCann Center. Those kids swim six days a week, 11 months a year. Endless practices. Endless meets (really, really endless sweaty meets). Parents are sucked right into this well-worth-it but time-consuming culture. The DUSO/Stingray thing is just a snippet of that; it basically consumes the month of July, and culminates with the DUSO Championships – a sort of all-day swimapalooza – that was on Saturday morning, afternoon and into the evening up in Rhinebeck. There are 62 events, each with multiple heats. Natalie was in event 10, 44 and 52. For those keeping score at home (and I know you are), that’s a lot of down time between events. I’m happy to report that Natalie had an excellent season. She improved significantly in all of her strokes, and she is going to try out for the high school team, if she can pass that fancy District Fitness Test (she’s still in 8^th grade) next week. So yeah. DUSO season is over. Cross country season is nearing. Here we go.