What's happening to Swim Club?
The Barrington Swim Club celebrates 30 years this year! It is a terrific milestone for an organization that's touched the lives of hundreds of young, and old people from the Barrington area.
Unfortunately, the team's current board and staff have apparently chosen to ignore the team's accomplishments, as well as that of its long time former head coach, Lee McCloud.
Like so many of today's big, impersonal organizations, the BSC has pushed the man responsible for the club's many achievements, out the door without so much as a gold watch, a going away party or even a "thank you."
Lee McCloud moved his family to Barrington 30 years ago, to help start the Barrington Swim Club. During the next 29 years, he gave up countless dinners, weekends and precious family time with his wife, Susie, and their children, Chad and Amanda, to build the organization into one of the finest swim clubs in the state.
This summer, I helped organize a reunion and anniversary party for the swim club, which would have been an opportune time to thank coach McCloud for his dedication to the club. The event was attended by dozens of the coach's former swimmers and their families, from all over the country.
However, not only did the current head swim coach, and nearly all the other swim coaches, as well as the entire BSC board, avoid the event, they didn't have the decency to respond to any of the many e-mails surrounding the reunion and anniversary. (To his credit, one current coach - who coached when I swam in the eighties - did attend).
Even the fun of Barrington's 4th of July parade was dampened by the club's refusal to engage in the event. The float, which consisted of a truck with two large signs, was coordinated, manned and paid for by former swimmers.
It is terribly sad to see a once great club go the way of so many other ordinary organizations and for my hometown to lose the respect and admiration of a team that's had such a terrific impact on so many people's lives for 30 years.
Beth Horslev Gilbert
Berkeley Lake, Ga.