1st Stop New York City

Dear New Trier Swim Club,

Most of you probably know me, but in case you don’t my name is Sam Metz. I recently graduated New Trier High School and swim in the Elite group for NTSC. I have swam for NTSC since I was seven years old. I am writing this blog because last summer my performances at Jr Nationals were fast enough to be chosen for the National Youth team, which is competing in a meet called Mare Nostrum in Barcelona. My goal is to write every day until I get home. I am extremely excited because making this team has been a goal of mine since my freshman year of high school. I hope by writing to you guys everyday I can illustrate how much fun it is to compete on this National Youth team so others can have it as a goal as well. Every swimmer who is reading this should know that they are extremely fortunate to be part of such an excellent club. We have coaches who care about us as swimmers and as people. I believe in this program 100%. Thank you Bob, Browny and Kyle for helping me achieve this goal and getting me here! I would also like to thank my teammates and the club for supporting me.
OK, now that I have that stuff out of the way, let me recap my day so far. It has been a crazy first day of travel! I arrived at the airport at 11:00 for my 12:20 flight to Newark, which was my connection to Barcelona. Once at O’Hare, I found out that my flight to Newark had been cancelled. Candi, the USA Swimming manager, rebooked me on a different flight which was a good sign, but the flight was delayed about five hours so I missed the team flight to Barcelona. A lot of people missed flights because of weather on the east coast. At first I was upset because I want to be there for every moment of this trip, but I am not too worried because I know I will get there tommorow. An important thing to know about swimming is that you can’t expect everything to go perfectly all the time. Whether your little sister makes you late for warmup, you lose your favorite pair of goggles before your race or you miss your flight to Spain, there will always be something that doesn’t go exactly according to plan. To compete at the highest level, you have to be able to get past this minor setbacks and focus on the main goal- racing!

OK, I will update you all tommorow!

Thanks NTSC!

Sam

PS- If you want to email me or contact me while I am in Spain my email address is sammetz91@yahoo.com