Small details make a difference, like finding out what time something starts

I learned a valuable lesson recently about the importance of small details when I agreed to write a story about an all-ages swim club in Elgin.

Always find out what time something starts before you say you’ll show up in person.

I didn’t, and that’s how I found myself poolside at The Centre of Elgin before sunrise on a recent Wednesday morning (though I would consider it pre-morning).

Weeks before the practice, I ran in to Jaime Garcia, retired executive director of Centro de Informacion and a gem of a gentleman, who told me he was involved with the Elgin Blue Wave masters swim team and that they were preparing for the annual state meet.

He said it was an interesting group of people and asked if I might be willing to give them some coverage. Normally I’m wary of people trying to sell me on a story like this because frequently their judgment on how interesting it really is is clouded by self-interest. But anyone who knows Garcia knows self-interest would never enter the equation.

So I said yes, I’d be happy to come to a practice, make some pictures and talk with people for a story.

Rookie mistake. Always get the small details first.

“We practice at 6 a.m. on Wednesdays and 6:30 a.m. on weekends,,” is what he probably said. I remember it now as “Ha-ha, sucker. Set your alarm for 4:30.”

All whining about an early start aside, covering something like this for me requires disciplined time management. As a multimedia journalist I’m responsible for both the reporting and photography for the stories I cover. Since I definitely didn’t want to come back again at 6:30 over the weekend for more photos, I had to make my hay before the sun shone.

I limited most of my photos to a few select lanes with swimmers who were wearing different color caps to make it easier to identify who was who later when I was sitting at my computer doing captions.

In between photos I’d jot down some quick notes and observations while formulating a focus for the story, which wasn’t easy because there were lots of ways to go. Through quick conversations between laps I learned about:

— Coach Corinne Grotenhuis, who has volunteered as coach since 1987 when she founded the team at age 18. And she was about to be inducted in to the Illinois Masters Swim Association Hall of Fame, adding to a list of about a half dozen other Halls of Fame to which she belongs.

— The team’s oldest member, 78-year-old Oz Osbourne of Hampshire, who had suffered a heart attack just a couple of years ago but was back to being nationally ranked in his age group. He was quick to show me his “I survived the widow-maker heart attack” T-shirt his wife had given him.

— That team had high hopes for a top finish in the upcoming state meet.

In the end, I kind of chose it all. Probably not the most focused piece of journalism, but a fun read about a dedicated group of people who had no complaints about swimming at 6 a.m.

BTW, the team finished second in the state meet, so big congrats to them.