What makes a Swami a Swami
Race Swami has always been drawn to symbolic gestures that pay ode to an inspiring story. These are the ones our swimmers grow up inside.
The gold caps
At the Senior State Championship in St. George, Race Swami unveiled a metallic gold cap for relays and finals. Green caps for prelims, gold for the evening. It was a complete surprise to the swimmers, who then went through team-record relays to a top 20 finish with only four Swamis at the meet. The caps came out again at the Beehive Finale and at Utah Age Group State, where the team recorded more than 95% best times and the 11-12 girls 200 medley relay won its heat out of Lane 10, seeded twentieth in a field of twenty-two.
Green caps can carry any message: Sí Se Puede, Make a Difference, or a swimmer's own name. The gold caps carry only one, “¡Sí Se Puede!”
The state shirts
For every Utah state meet, Race Swami releases a new officially licensed original. The first, in March 2011, was a deep green now known as the Old School Classic Green, with the fleur on the front and “Make a Difference” on the back. Every design since has carried intricate, Latino-influenced artwork by head coach Matt Finnigan, who spent years as an art director before returning to coaching. “Mexican folk art intrigues the heck out of me, so I try to bring a little bit of that to each design,” he says. Every design is still in print.
The Día de los Muertos Classic
Our annual USA Swimming meet at the Northwest Recreation Center in Rose Park, and our biggest fundraiser. Swami families work it together, and it is the clearest picture of who this team is: a westside program that celebrates where its swimmers come from rather than asking them to leave it at the door.
More Swami traditions
An honour given by the coaches for something done in the name of the Race Swami mission: community service, an extraordinary work ethic, real teamwork or leadership, a performance in practice or at a meet, attendance above 90%, exemplary character, or simply learning a lot and having fun doing it. The point is to name a beacon for everyone around them.
Every Race Swami family gives a minimum of twelve service hours a year, and most give well more. The team has worked the Rio Jordan Triathlon in Rose Park, the Glendale Halloween Hustle and Food Drive, Rose Park's Easter Eggstravaganza, The Road Home Shelter holiday program, the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation's Energy Walk and the Utah State Fair.
Race Swami hosts more than half a dozen clinics a year for young people in the surrounding westside communities. They are fun, affordable and necessary, and scholarships funded by our donors mean no child has ever been turned away from one.
Every summer the team throws a fiesta and invites the donors, supporters and community leaders who make the program possible. There are family gatherings through the year too, to mark what the team has done together.
Race Swami works with the Guadalupe School in Rose Park and The Neighborhood House near Glendale, serving hundreds of students through seasonal after-school character education classes that pair values like action, alertness, friendship, hard work and poise with a half-hour swim lesson.
Come swim with us.
Every prospective Swami gets a one-week trial, and financial assistance is always available. Call or text Minerva and we will find a time.