STREAK OF LOVE: In Philadelphia, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, sits a legendary gymnasium named The Palestra. Outside that old barn’s front doors is a plaque that reads:

“To win the game is great. To play the game is greater. But to love the game is the greatest of all.”

Last Thursday night, the little girl in the upper left began her 54th season as swimmer, coach & a few years of double duty as parent with the Cumberland Youth Foundation swim team.  Fifty four years in the aquatic battles of the Chattanooga Area Swim League. Fifty four years of a perfume concocted of sweat & chlorine. Tonight, Monday, with a lineup rolled up like John Wooden, once more she’ll travel up & down the pool deck. Every summer, as sure as Mona Lisa’s gonna smile or a pessimist is gonna find the cloud in the silver lining. Every Monday night. Every Thursday night. Counting the fact her dad was involved since CYF began in 1958, was at the first CASL meets in ‘59 when CYF & Shepherd Hills squared off in a home & home series & he provided the voice of the CASL City Meet from ‘62-’82, it seems the family is making a run on the DiMaggio/Ripken county line. Over the streak, Miss Julie has guided undefeated seasons & winless ones & found building blocks in each, she’s won, she’s played, she’s loved. She’s dried tears of “I can’t”, wept along with tears of “I did it!”, written on countless 8 & under hands & forearms the events to be swum, adjusted swim caps, provided backup goggles, & in a lay up for a sharp ad exec, she’s washed it all down with, unsurprisingly because it’s a streak after all, the same original lemon-lime sports drink. Fifty four years of win, play, & love. I’m often asked when Miss Julie will give it up. The answer came in her response to my pre-meet good luck text on Monday. Her text read, “Thanks, I’m a little early (it was 4:08 for a 6:00 meet), first meet jitters.” She’ll quit when the jitters, the marrow for competitive bones, quit. Until then, nothing’s going to modify or manipulate the calculus, unroll her lineup, or unbound her love of Monday & Thursday nights because she’ll have no idea what to do jitter free. Love’s funny that way…