The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius

CAS Swimming Championships
Aloys got the power!
71st Annual Swimming
Championships of the Combined
Associated Schools
This year is was St Aloysius’ College’s turn to coordinate
the stylish and exciting CAS swimming
carnival. It is a mega-event staged at the lavish,
brightly lit venue of the Olympics at Homebush. The aura
of Australia’s splendid victories at the last Games still
lingers. To be still a boy and mount those same blocks and
plunge into the same blue waters in front of five thousand
excited and vociferous supporters seems to me at once
most exciting and a tremendous privilege. How much
more, I wonder, would you need to motivate you on those
dark early mornings at training? This is what it is all for,
Tom Austin (Year 12) said to me when I asked him how
it felt to be at his last CAS. Swimming is often a family
affair: there are the Hawkins, the Boyers, the Austins, the
Birrells, for instance.
Last year I attended the CAS swimming to support
students of mine in the team and out of curiosity to see
how things had changed since I was at school. The
experience changed me. I was taught an important lesson
in values and took up a new sport.
‘Play hard and with integrity, and have lots of fun’, Sir
Donald Bradman once advised. Our swimmers learned
this lesson before I did. In
71 years St Aloysius’ has
won the CAS swimming
only once, back in 1935.
This lack of success
neither deters nor
disappoints them. They
swim because they love the
sport regardless of
victories or defeats.
Despite the lonely hours
of following the black line,
there is an unrivalled
James Boyers (Year 11) companionship among
this group. Boys of all ages train together, socialise
together, eat together, travel together and compete
together. When I suggested to one swimmer that it might
help to ease the burden on such a relatively small group to
seek to enlarge it, he said, "That might spoil things. It is just
like a family as it is". You quickly realise the truth of this
when you mix with them: there is a great deal of mutual
encouragement and support. They are very protective of
each other. Older ones inspire and nurture the younger
ones. They have something precious here and they know
it, and none of it depends upon winning.
In talking to some of the swimmers, I wanted to know
what attracted them to the sport. While some took it up
for health reasons, Dominic Monckton (Year 11) for
instance, others spoke of this mysterious affinity with the
water. I remembered Shane Gould once saying this. I
Samuel McConnell Year 7
wanted to know more. Feel the water, one boy directed,
just feel the water. I decided to try. I started training. All
my life I had been a runner: at least every second day I’d
be on the track regardless of the weather. I joined up at my
local swimming pool. I read books, watched the
techniques of the best swimmers. Gradually I came to
experience and understand. Now, no day is complete
without time in the water. That feeling of semiweightlessness
relaxes, invigorates and soothes. I have
learned to feel the water.
As I waited back at the end of this CAS swimming
championships, though, I was tempted. I thought how
exciting it would be if our school could just one more time
win on this night. Just to show them we could if we
wanted to. I started to reflect on what would be involved:
a much bigger squad, training at least six times a week
instead of two, regular weights sessions, nutritionists’
planning special diets, a physiotherapist, specialist coaches
for each type of stroke, possibly swimming scholarships to
attract champions from other schools, a five-year
development plan. Hmm? Perhaps not. And we did beat
Cranbrook again after all.
Robert Schneider (SAC 1958)
Senior School Staff
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