By Siobhan Dale, Swimming World College Intern
These last few weeks I have been eagerly immersed in writing about Olympic champions and their moments. But now the spotlight seems to be dimming. For that reason, I wanted to transition my focus away from Olympians to display someone far more important to me: my sister.
Ask anyone, McKenna Dale is not a swimmer. She’s a basketball player. Look at the Connecticut swimming records and McKenna has set one state record, holds one state title, and is an All-American. Along with her swimming accolades, McKenna is an All-State basketball player who has received an athletic scholarship to Brown University. Three months of the year, during high school swim season, McKenna Dale’s schedule reads a little like this:
5:30 a.m.: Wake up
6 a.m – 7:10 a.m: Swim Practice
7:30 a.m – 2:00: School
2:30 p.m – 5 p.m: Swim Practice
6 p.m. – 7 p.m: Basketball Practice
8 p.m- 8:30 p.m: Weights
Photo Courtesy: Darren Dale
McKenna started both swimming and basketball because her big sister (yours truly) did them. She was that annoying little sister who had to partake in every single activity I was doing at any given moment.
When I was 5 years old I was put in a 15 minute time-out. McKenna asked my mom if she could have a time-out as well. The night before I first went to pre-school my mom packed my bag and put it by the door. McKenna packed her own and placed it right next to mine, refusing to believe she couldn’t come with me the next day. The first swim club I ever competed on required swimmers to be 7 or older to join. Six-year-old McKenna came to watch me everyday from the bleachers.
When we were in high school, McKenna and I overlapped for two years. Despite having basketball practice to attend, McKenna did extra hours with me in the pool and lifted with me after school. I always told her to go home, get something to eat, get some sleep. She always replied, “Siobhan, I’m doing this with you. Right next to you.”
On days I felt most like crying, McKenna was right next to me making me laugh. On days I felt like giving up, McKenna was right next to me doing one more set. She’s one of those annoying people who, when the coach asks if it’s been hard enough, she actually says “no.”
Photo Courtesy: Darren Dale
On the day where it was real, at our state championship meet my junior year, McKenna swam the 50 free final in the lane right next to me. When they announced my name she actually turned to me and clapped and cheered. Her focus on me before the race only foreshadowed how she would act after the sprint was finished.
She had to ask our coach what place she got because she “was so worried for me” that she looked at my time first and then spent the next 10 minutes hugging me and congratulating me on the win. McKenna trained just as hard as I had, but didn’t medal that year. She didn’t mention it once. Instead she told me how proud she was of me and how grateful she was for the whole season. I asked her if she was okay with her swim and she said she only cared about mine.
When I lost that same race my senior year, my coach was standing behind my lane. The first words I spoke to him after the loss were, “Where’s McKenna?” He told me to go talk to her after she was finished warming up for her 100 fly. At that same moment she came sprinting over to us and spent the next 15 minutes talking to me, instead of completing her warmup (she went a best time anyways).
When McKenna started her junior year, I went to college and for the first time in 18 years we were apart. We talked every single day on the phone. I couldn’t watch her States races online, so my mom had me on the phone while she was swimming. She won an event, but lost the other. I spent an hour speaking to her on the phone and I would have talked longer but she told me she had to go to the gym. The day McKenna Dale lost at States in swimming she proceeded to spend four hours training for basketball.
In 2018 McKenna will attend Brown University on a basketball scholarship. It’s a running joke on both her swimming and basketball teams that the girl who always asks “wait, what are we doing?” is now Ivy League bound. McKenna always responds to her “Ivy League” status in the same humble way– “I would have about a 2 percent chance of getting accepted if I didn’t have basketball,” she laughs.
Photo Courtesy: Darren Dale
It’s hard to equate the word “underdog” with the idea of an All-American Division I athlete. The way McKenna talks, I can tell she thinks that overcoming a two percent chance makes her lucky. That thought of hers is the reason why I wrote this.
A two percent chance doesn’t make you lucky, it makes you an underdog. McKenna Dale is the girl who won states. But she’s also the girl who placed dead last in the final her freshman year. McKenna Dale is the girl who has her name on a banner in the E.O. Smith gym naming her as a thousand point scorer. She’s also the freshman who missed a game winning shot in conference finals. McKenna Dale is the girl who is going to Brown University. She’s also the girl who had a two percent chance of getting in.
McKenna Dale is the girl who taught me that you fight, no matter what odds are against you, no matter what chance you have of winning. She is the girl who taught me what it means to overcome the past and create a future. Two percent doesn’t make you lucky. It forces you to make yourself. McKenna made herself into someone who is no longer an underdog.
This year she will swim her last swim season ever as the girl to beat in her respective events. She will play her last high school basketball season as the girl to watch. At Brown University she will once again drop to underdog status. But if the past truly is prologue, I don’t believe that title will last very long. She is the two percent that I believe in 100 percent.
Good luck this season to all you underdogs. Good luck this season to all of you who are underdogs no longer. But most importantly, good luck to my sister. You may have never been lucky, but the day you were born I knew I was.
I love you.
There are no athletic scholarships in the Ivies. The sports ability sure does help on getting accepted. Aid is based on need and any academic awards.
The article is terrific and the young lady sounds like a winner.
If you want to pretend that the Ivies and other non-scholarship leagues like the Patriot used to be are actually that, you are kidding yourself. Make no mistake, the athletes that compete for those schools are ABSOLUTELY scholarship kids. If you really believe that aid is based on need and academic awards, you are clueless. The athletes are there because they are capable students that are able to compete in an Ivy academic environment. They will get enormous aid based on their ability as athletes, as well they should.
I coached in the league 16 years and had a great deal of familiarity with admissions and financial aid offices and what happens. Now if you have some real inside info would love to verify it. Perception does not count or hearsey that I have constantly heard about. When a swimmer leaves the team their aid continues all four years even if you never showed up for the team once. People always brag of athletic rides even though it isn’t one just like everyone gets a full ride. Gossip prevails. Which enjoy hearing of a specific case. The swimmers ability does help in getting in as with many students with special abilities like Hollywood actresses.
Now I am not saying some ambitios alum may have added on to it but that is NCAA illegal and I have never seen it proved. They do not give ATHLETIC scholarships you have to have need unless possibly the parents put in phones financial info on the forms.
Well for someone who claims to be associated with the Ivy League for 16 years you seem to lack a basic command of the English language. Spell check perhaps bud? Regardless of your inability to communicate, you are still missing the point here. The young lady was recruited by the university and will matriculate because of her athletic ability. She will get tens of thousands of dollars of aid because she is an exceptional basketball player. Not because of financial need, not because of academic ability, it will be for ATHLETIC ability. In the end though, why would you read this, as a “16 year” (ho ho ho) veteran of the Ivy League and think, “you know, I should comment about Ivy League financial aid”. Reading comprehension is also an issue bud. But hey, at least you are “ambitios”. Happy trolling.
There were three college Profs that would agree with your observation. I recieved 3 D’s instead of F’s back then. One just passed away last year at 101, When ever I saw him almost every year at Hall of Fame or reunion dinners I always thanked him and we would chat awhile. He wrote a couple of books on John Ruskin and swam for exercise almost every day till he was 95.
Now what does that have to do with being a coach in the Ivues? I believe it was my coaching, swimming accomplishments and knowing some people that helped
The subject was the important part. You are not going to agree with me because of your concept of the matter. You have not explained your background to give you knowledge on the matter. It is not trolling if you read my original repy to the article . It is a topic I have discussed a few hundred times since 1966 when hired by the Univ. Of Peennsylvania.it is not new to run into your point of view. I have used the proper info on my posting as CoachGB or Deorge T Breen if you care to google it to see my Wikipedia page.
I have also coached many swimmers who have attended other Ivy schools.
Deorge, after a great deal of thought I think you are right. My name is Randy, I was hired by Darthmouth in 1984. Coaching in the Ivues was awesome. I loved every second of it. Didnt see you there bud