To the Band of Brothers: October 30, 2020
Good morning!
In the midst of this global pandemic, when it seems that the world has been turned upside down, it is good to know there are some things that continue to move forward. Unfortunately, sometimes, those things that move forward do so unnoticed. I would like to notice one in particular.
On Wednesday, when the majority of our student body was quietly at home, the Belen swimming team was hard at work on campus winning a regional championship. I say hard at work because more than most, I see it. From my office in the administration building, I get a privileged view of the swimmers every single afternoon and on weekends swimming laps back and forth in the aquatic center. I have box seats to what I consider the most grueling exercise of athleticism known to man.
I like to swim, but for me, it falls under the category of leisure. From a young age, if you grow up in Miami, you are learning to swim before you learn to walk. I remember as a little boy wearing bright orange floaties and being taken to a swimming lesson. Well, I don’t know if it really qualifies as a swimming lesson. My father basically walked me to the edge of the pool at my cousin’s house and threw me in. Without having to say much, I realized the lesson was either swim or sink. So, I swam.
From then on, swimming was a delight...again, leisurely. From pool parties with friends, Saturdays at the Playa de los Viejos in Miami Beach, El Farito in Crandon Park, to once-a-year long weekends in Naples, swimming was not to be taken seriously. Just seriously enough to not drown or just enough to play chicken and, again, not drown.
However, our Belen swimmers take swimming very seriously, not leisurely like I did (and still do). What has most impressed me this year from this team is how smart they swim. They seem to understand their strengths and weaknesses and play to them so they don’t shine as individual athletes, but as a team. As both district and regional champions, they beat the likes of Doral and St. Thomas Aquinas, who for years have torched swimming pools throughout Miami. On Wednesday, it was the Wolverines that did the torching.
Congratulations to the boys and their coaches. Now, on to states!
Auspice Maria
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba, by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit is situated on a 34-acre site in western Dade County, just minutes away from downtown Miami.