On deck at Savannah’s Chatham County Aquatic Center, music was playing over the sound system and Savannah Sea Dragons coach, Ben Umbreit, was at the microphone as emcee of the Walt Weed Invite. As a former DJ, he was in his element, injecting enthusiastic energy into this April Masters swim meet.

While speaking with several members of his team throughout the afternoon, it became apparent Ben is a well-loved coach. I could see why; his extroverted personality and enthusiasm was infectious!

Ironically, the burnt-out former University of New Mexico swimmer no longer swims and has no desire to get back in the pool any time soon. Growing up in the state of Washington, Ben had swum year-round from age seven through eighteen, before being recruited to swim for the Lobos. Enough was enough for him. (Full Profile)

For some Masters Swimmers, swimming is just one of many activities they participate in and enjoy, but for others, it’s a life changer. In the case of Savannah Sea Dragons member, Brad Krygier, he recognizes that swimming changed his life in important ways, beginning in childhood.

Like most boys, Brad grew up playing sports with the neighborhood kids. Until about age ten, they were all about the same size as him. But that soon changed. According to Brad, “In the middle of my tenth year, all the kids were growing very fast. That kind of precipitated the rest of the year into some real challenges for me. They started bullying me because I was small and li*le, and they picked on me. I would be picked last every time we had a neighborhood gathering to do any of the sports, because size ma*ered to them. I was losing a lot of self-confidence.”

Brad’s mom was concerned and wanted to find an activity her son could excel in, so she enrolled her son in the Waukesha Swim Club. A1er Brad improved and gained experience, he tried out for the relay team and was chosen as the fourth member. At age 14, he had progressed to the fast lane and was swimming 8- 10,000 meters a day in three a day practices, six days per week, throughout the summer. The work paid off for his relay team. Not only did they qualify for AAU regionals, but his relay team broke the record for Wisconsin and Region 7 that year. “That started my love for competing and being in relays, which was really my thing,” Brad said. (Full Profile)

“The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” For those of you who weren’t around back then, that was the most famous part of the melodramatic introduction to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, a popular Saturday sports television show. And it was watching Olympic swimming on this show that inspired Theresa Strazzella to become a swimmer. “I always liked to swim, but back in the 60’s and early 70’s, there were no such programs, at least in the small town (Peoria, Illinois) where I came from. My first memories of swimming were when I was seven. My mother loved to watch the ‘Wide World of Sports’ on TV, and she would always watch the Olympics. We were watching swimming, and I turned to her and said, ‘I want to swim in the Olympics!’ And she said, ‘Oh honey, we would have to live in California for that.’ So, there was the first dream crusher.”

Although Theresa didn’t have the opportunity to compete in swimming as a child, she became a pool lifeguard in high school and continued that job through her early college years.

As it turned out, Theresa and her husband moved to California in the early 80’s where they raised their two sons in Los Angeles. Her youngest boy wanted to swim on a team, so Theresa enrolled him into a program. One of the coaches told her there was also a Masters team and invited her to join, but her work schedule and family obligations conflicted with their evening practices. “I [told the coach], I will retire one day, and then I’ll do it.” (Full Profile)