Awards

The Dyrlands explain the history behind this award:

Shelley joined the club in June 1975 after Art Mellom had approached her at swim lessons. Showing her usual enthusiasm she went to training and came home full of stories about the coaches and all the swimmers.

Time trials came up right away and the Red Deer Meet was looming. Mom and Dad, feeling very proud of their daughter, went down to watch the time trials. Never having been at a swim meet, everything was strange and so sitting in the bleachers watching some of the parents’ reaction to how their children had swum was no exception. One mother ran up and down the bleachers while the race was on and then really raised cane with her son when the race was over. We were shocked! Did we have to react like this? We’d never make it. Then came Shelley’s turn. Sitting up a little taller we watched as she dove in from the edge of the pool while everyone else used the blocks. Prejudice against our child? (No – she just hadn’t been there long enough to know how to stand on them). Then the race! As the swimmers streaked down the pool Shelley was getting further and further behind. We couldn’t believe it! I think they delayed the meet for her to finish. We were mortified. Why would they ask her to swim with them if she wasn’t any faster than that? Well – we weren’t going to have our child humiliated – we’d take her out! Find something she was more suited to. She pulled herself out of the pool, asked her time and came straight to the stands to see us. We, of course, were ready to console her and let her know we still loved her. What we weren’t ready for was the smile, the excitement, the bubbling enthusiasm.

“Wasn’t it great Mom and Dad? I’m pretty slow, but wasn’t it great?”

We were dumbfounded. How could you kill enthusiasm like that? Smiling weakly we agreed how great it was. And her enthusiasm stayed all summer. She loved the social aspect of the club. She had so many new friends. Realistic in realizing she had some good swimmers to swim against right in Red Deer she never quit trying to beat her personal best and catch up to Kelli Barabonoff and Donna McNichol. Because of work commitments, Earl and I never got too involved in the swim club that summer and never really learned what it was all about. I’m sure we were a trial to Art in Killam when we picked up Shelley before the relays, as we had to go on to Vermilion. We never had any idea how hard it is to run a relay with only three girls and we’ll never forget the disbelief on Art’s face the day we told him Shelley wouldn’t be going to Regionals because we had put her in a bible camp. What were Regionals? We didn’t have any idea. So, needless to say, Shelley did not go to Provincials that year. But her enthusiasm remained and the next May she was ready to start again. This time little brother Bart was asked to swim also.

That summer progressed much better. I wasn’t working and took more interest in the training sessions. It’s amazing what you learn when you hang around the pool every day. Shelley continued to improve her swimming and loved every minute of it, whether training or at meets. Being a social person anyway, mixing with all these boys and girls was very enjoyable for her. That summer she competed in the Regionals which were held in Red Deer. Both her relay teams qualified to go to provincials in Calgary. They won silver and bronze medals. At the wind-up, she shared the most improved 10 and under swimmer award with Roxanne Noyes. Was she thrilled! Of course, Mom and Dad were kind of pleased too. Little did we know that would be her last year of swimming.

The next spring, after the tragedy had struck, we decided to donate a trophy to the swim club to be given to a swimmer that not necessarily always won ribbons and medals, but to one who always tried hard. Someone that being part of the club was special to them and after doing their best, but maybe placing second or third, could congratulate the winner with sincerity. Someone that put the efforts of the whole team right along side of their own personal triumphs. Someone who took the time to watch and cheer all age groups. This swimmer was to be chosen by the head coach. We would not have any say in the choice.

In the ten years, we were involved in the club, as parents of Bart, we got to know the swimmers and realized how hard it was for the coach to choose one, as these summer swimmers were all such a great bunch of kids.

The winning swimmer has his/her name engraved on the trophy, which is displayed in the trophy case at the Recreation Centre, and also receives a coordinated engraved plaque to keep. The trophy was designed by

Ray Malo of Al Ray Trophy Shack and Jacki Dyrland. The lady at the top of the trophy with her arms extended signifies Victory. The two maple leafs are Canadian, of course. The two smaller swimmers, one male, one female indicates the award is for male or female. The larger swimmer in the center is female and signifies Shelley. The blue color was chosen as it was the team color, the gold signifies a top award. Shelley’s picture was added, in hopes, the swimmers who never knew her personally would be able to identify with it a little better and realize it’s an award based on the characteristics of a former swimmer.

Shelley introduced us to a new social set. We enjoyed the family aspect of the club and its outings to swim meets. We enjoyed camping at Killam, sitting at a swim meet in the boiling sun or chilling rain.Walking into the Killam pool when our swimmers are shouting R-E-double D- double-E-R at the top of their lungs is something a person could never forget. Meeting a child on the street and not recognizing them because their hair isn’t standing on end from chlorine damage must be forgivable as they still say hello. Those years are very precious to us and it is with more than a little envy I see your closeness when I come to the wind-up to present Shelley’s trophy.

I do miss the sitting at the pool watching kids swim up and down, the getting up at some ungodly hour to be at a pool for 8 A.M. warm-ups, the dripping bathing suits, towels, sweat suits, and sleeping bags that accompanied us home from a meet. The thrill of a win, the disappointment of a disqualification, the feeling of an overfull stomach after trying a little of everyone’s food at the wind-up – I miss them all.

We would like to congratulate all the swimmers who have won in the past and encourage all the swimmers of the future to work hard and keep improving their personal best and even if they never win this particular award they will still be winners in their own right.

Good luck to all from the Dyrland family,

Earl, Jacki, Bart & Cory