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Show Swim Team Letter to the Editor: We would like you to meet us, we are your community swim team. We are called the Vernal Vipers. We picked the name ourselves and asked a local artist, Ronnie Boren, to design an emblem representing our team to wear on our jackets and warmup suits. So if you see a: big gold snake on a purple V attached to a jacket, you'll know that this athlete is a Vernal Viper swimmer. Lately, you haven't heard about our accomplishments but we are still working work-ing very hard on our goals. We have 22 members on our team. Some of us are brand new and are anxious to attend our first meet in competition. However, there are some of us who have been on the team since it was first organized. We welcome all kids who would like to set some goals and achieve them. Practices are strenuous but very rewarding. Being a Viper demands a lot of hard work and endurance. For those of us who have practiced faithfully, who have exercised on our program, lifted weights and run our miles, we have benefitted greatly. We are stronger mentally and physically. Swimming is mostly an individual sport. Our timing and speed is up to us. When we stick to our training schedule we even amaze ourselves. If we are lazy in our practices, our time shows it. At every meet we swim relay races and we always swim our best because we are representing our team and our community. Every night we have a warm-up schedule that changes as we become stronger. We really thought we were swimming great when we were swimming swimm-ing two miles in practice, but now we swim four or five miles and more on Saturday. We also have a lighter schedule, for those who have just joined us. Our new members work up gradually gradual-ly and build up their endurance. This sport is a family affair. Many members on our team are brothers and sisters. Parents encourage us and support sup-port us. They belong to the Aquatic Booster Club, and they help to earn money for our club. They have taken us to meets in Salt Lake City, Provo, Orem, Craig, Steamboat, Meeker and Lava Hot Springs. There are many times when we want to quit to be able to watch TV and to play around with our friends, but we keep on swimming to reach our goal. When we reach our "B" time we can enter the Junior Olympics. There are four of us who are less than a second to qualify for this and four of us have made this goal. These swimmers are Mike Sonnie, Cam-mie Cam-mie Burke, Derrick Boyce and Jesse Hodgkinson. When we first started swimming competitively, com-petitively, we were ignored by the other teams and coaches. But now when we walk in dressed all in purple, we are noticed. We have been complimented on our manners, our sportsmanship and our ability. We have been called "The Beast from the East," by our competitors. They respect our young team and know how hard we have worked because we have been very competitive the last six months, which is rare for a new team. We are representing your community every time we swim out of Vernal and we have tried our hardest at every meet. Our hours to swim are very difficult because of split sessions in school, but we are trying to work with the community. We are swimming now during your dinner din-ner from 5 to 7. Although we swim eleven hours a week our grades are good and surveys have been taken from swim , teams in Salt Lake from different teams and they found there is no juvenile delinquency delin-quency in the dedicated swim members. Susie Atwood, an Olympian swimmer, visited our swim team last summer. She said that .the talent was here but1 need is to continue our hard wort5, have the support of the community We want to thank our community fi their support. We want to get as mft of us as possible to the Junior Olympic ... We are working hard to make this dr v, come true. Thank you, THE VERNAL VIPE SUSIE HODGKIN |