Take our San Beda football team, the reigning NCAA champion. And now, for the first time in 15 years, the San Beda Sea Lions have bagged the NCAA Swimming Championship. It’s a double whammy this year because it’s a back-to-back championship for both our Juniors and Seniors.
Though the impact of this is not as big as, say winning a basketball tourney, it’s still a major victory and deserves jubilation. One must not underestimate the hard work of the people responsible for this victory.
At first I was skeptical when a former teammate told me that we had won, and there would be a celebration in Malate later that evening.
Too bad I wasn’t even there that final day. News like this sometimes sounds too good to be true. I needed to be slapped first before believing once and for all that we had indeed won.
If I had any disbelief, that went away as soon as I got to the party. I could see right away that our swimmers were no longer, uh, "sober." So if these otherwise disciplined athletes had the urge to drink as if there was no tomorrow, there really must have been a huge reason to celebrate. After all, this victory was 15 years overdue.
Back in my time we were so used to losing, or, let me rephrase that, we were not that psyched to win. Although we weren’t bottom-dwellers, we were usually the "bridesmaids and never the bride," so just imagine how strange the taste of victory was to us. During our varsity days, my teammates used to joke that our alma mater was already so used to having "long- term" jinxes in some sports  snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so to speak. So when competition season would come along we just ended up making total clowns of ourselves and tried to be comfortable with, if not enjoyed, defeat.
Another example is our basketball team: 24 years of basketball championship drought and still counting. The last time we bagged the title was over Ateneo.
So you see, losing isn’t really a big deal for us. What is good about losing is that it humbles you. And the longer the drought the sweeter the victory when it finally comes.
Non-swimmers might say you see one swimming team, you’ve seen them all. Not true. This swimming team played a major role in our college lives, or even high school lives. Though we weren’t the batch that brought home the bacon we felt that we were part of this win. We see our swimming team as one big barkada, not just a bunch of guys who swim a lot. There’s bonding both in and out of the pool. A small embodiment of the real meaning of Bedan brotherhood.
There’s no such thing as hierarchy here, compared to the old school mindset where there is the "I’m-the-star-here-and-you’re-just-dirt" syndrome. No need to be the vulnerable and scared neophyte wherein the upperclassmen are out to make your life a living hell. Be prepared to be accepted and yet brace yourself for their childish antics. They were one of the reasons I had a great time even in my freshman year.
Surely swimming is an individual sport, but that’s no excuse for you not to look out for each other, unlike in other sports where they would just leave you to the dogs.
This must be a growing-up stage every athlete can relate to, especially in your college years. You tend to develop character in a way not readily available to other students. And  there’s the scholarship, of course. There’s a bigger circle of friends. And you’re spared from PE and ROTC.
You share the hardships of training  in our case, drinking the same chlorinated pool water  as well as the body aches. When the coach got pissed at one person in our team, all of us were dragged in and so we all got the same instant tan. But in the end, the trophy makes up for those hours of scorching.
Since we were all guys, there was no need to be poised and proper. Boys will be boys  when the girls aren’t looking. And this team is so close-knit, no matter if you are one of the "oldies" or the "newbies"; there is no age gap. In other words, no matter how old you are, you tend to act like a bunch of schoolboys, which you are.
It may sound odd but a swimming team is like the Spice Girls (metaphorically speaking of course), in that you’re distinguished as one group, but each of your personalities stands out. There is the leader type: the "team captain" material, not necessarily the fastest in the group but the one whom everybody looks up to and likely to be the least mischievous and has the capability to get away with being bossy but not really be obvious about it.
Then there’s the "shampoo guy," the swimmer every one of his teammates would depend on every shower time; yours truly was the one who was privileged to hold that position back then. (There’s also the swimmer who’s the first to get in and the last to get out of the shower because he tends to soap himself twice.)
The group isn’t a group without the joker. A lot of my teammates stepped into the role. Even if everybody gets serious and tired from the day’s workout, there will still be somebody to lighten up our weary faces and bring us back to our child’s play.
We met the new team who won the championship for us. They seemed like a shy batch compared to the group of swimmers I hung out with (this makes me sound so old) who didn’t even know the meaning of the word "shy." But the best thing about winning this championship was that it bridged a lot of gaps, set aside the differences and grudges we had back then. Also, there were those of us who lost touch after graduation. So this is a great opportunity to let them know that we won and come Christmas time the annual team Christmas party will be at my place (ooops!!!).
This win could not have come at a better time now that San Beda is facing a crisis and is in dire need of a morale boost. After the collapse of the gym under construction, and all the ruckus about the school going coed next year, plus the transition to a new school administration, this double victory, it is hoped, signals the start of San Beda’s good fortune. Congratulations to both the juniors and seniors of the San Beda Swimming Team. Go San Beda Fight!!!