I remember P Mulins the author maybe I missed spelled his name talking about swimming being a white upper-middle class sport and the country club set. I guess he had not met Shirley Bashashoff that came from a blue collar background. Anyway, swimmers in elite circles tend to be more from upper-middle families than the non-elite. In high school programs, their are plenty of them from the barrio and the ghetto. Also, he seems to think swimming is divided between whites and blacks. In his state, both Latinos and Asians outnumber blacks. And Latinos are the group lowest on the income level in that state and Arizona mainly done to immirgation. I think the swimming world is seeing that in the states, its not a black and white world anymore,even in the south asians and latins have increase.
Parents
Former Member
Sam hits on a good point, money, and add to that noteriety.
I open the sports page of the local paper. First is the years top ten, which is mostly football and basketball dominated. The tennis team at the U of I got mentioned(they only won NCAA). A sprinter got mentioned(she only won gold at Worlds and turned pro), but U of I's pitiful football team was 2 or 3, U of I's losing its basketball coach, number one.
Then you turn the page, and you see collage football, bowl games, and the next page is prep basketball. On any given day, there are at least two pages devoted to prep basketball or football, and usually if there is a HS swim meet, it gets a small paragragh buried in other sports.
Also, the YMCA programs for basketball and football are fairly inexpensive and also offer scholarships. So if I am a black mother in government subsidized housing trying to keep my kids out of trouble and in school, I am going to use programs like the ones offered by school, park district and the Y rather than the $90-110 per month price tag for swimming on a club team.
And the club teams trying to offer scholarships?, They are barely keeping afloat with the cost of pool-time and coaching, they cannot afford to give scholarships.
Sam hits on a good point, money, and add to that noteriety.
I open the sports page of the local paper. First is the years top ten, which is mostly football and basketball dominated. The tennis team at the U of I got mentioned(they only won NCAA). A sprinter got mentioned(she only won gold at Worlds and turned pro), but U of I's pitiful football team was 2 or 3, U of I's losing its basketball coach, number one.
Then you turn the page, and you see collage football, bowl games, and the next page is prep basketball. On any given day, there are at least two pages devoted to prep basketball or football, and usually if there is a HS swim meet, it gets a small paragragh buried in other sports.
Also, the YMCA programs for basketball and football are fairly inexpensive and also offer scholarships. So if I am a black mother in government subsidized housing trying to keep my kids out of trouble and in school, I am going to use programs like the ones offered by school, park district and the Y rather than the $90-110 per month price tag for swimming on a club team.
And the club teams trying to offer scholarships?, They are barely keeping afloat with the cost of pool-time and coaching, they cannot afford to give scholarships.
