The pools open today!

It's Memorial Day weekend and pools all over the county are opening their doors for the summer--even though it may not have felt very much like summer recently. Some intrepid kids will plunge into the icy water (icy if you don't have heaters) and families will get reacquainted with their summer friends.

The opening of the pools means the Montgomery County Swim League is moving into high gear. Parents have been working in the winter and spring to get their programs ready. They've been hiring coaches, choosing swimwear, lining up other parent volunteers, and doing all the other varied tasks necessary to insure the kids on their teams have a fun summer of swim meets and social events.

And there are many kids on the teams! More than 9,000 children ages 4-18 in almost 90 pools from Silver Spring to Poolesville to Damascus spend June and July going to swim practice. Boys and girls from kindergarten to high school (and, in come cases, college) all compete on the same team in the same meets. And the parents of all those kids also get involved. Having been both a swimmer (many, many moons ago) and a swim parent, I have to say I think it's a toss up as to who has the most fun. The kids get to hang with their pals, eat stuff from the snack bar, and learn a healthy life skill. Parents get to hang with their friends and eat stuff from the snack bar and, well, they don't have to get wet!

I'm planning on bringing you bits of history, reports from the around the league, and other MCSL snippets on a somewhat regular basis until we all leave town the end of July. If you have any topics to suggest, you can leave them in the comments or email me through the league website, www.mcsl.org.

Have a great season!