Swim Team Page #3

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My Rottweiler, bull terrier,

black Lab,

a little capuchin monkey.

He's also a capuchin,

vervet monkey, blue macaw.

This is my orangutan.

This is my duck, my zebra.

This is my teddy bear.

It has my name on it, Michael.

Be the flying squirrel.

Swimmers on your mark.

Go! Jump out.

Better. That's better. Come on.

Listen.

You got to be the squirrel.

You got to get some air, okay?

Be the squirrel,

flying squirrel. Out you go.

And there's not a day goes by

that me and my wife

don't go through

something with him.

The most recent thing

that happened to us is,

come home at night.

Michael got through swimming.

He's up in his room, go knock

on the door and walk in.

He's crying. I go, "What are you

crying for?" And he said...

He looked at me and said,

"Why did God make me different?"

And you look at him. He said,

"Why did God make me different?"

He goes, "Why did God

make me different, Dad?

Why am I autistic?

What did I do wrong?"

My God. What are you

supposed to say to your kid?

And Michael knows he's autistic.

He knows he's different,

you know.

Me and my wife looked at each

other and tears in our eyes,

and we said,

"Because you're special.

God made you special,

and that's why you're different.

Not every kid can be special."

And...

And he was good with that,

and that was the truth.

You know, he is special.

You guys can't

do this, killing me.

But that's one of

the most recent things,

and I told him that,

"You keep swimming

the way you're swimming,

a lot of normal boys

can't do what you do."

For me, it's not about

fun time.

It's about training.

You need to work hard for it.

No intervals.

Just do it right.

Three, two, hit it!

Our mission statement is,

"Success at the national

and international levels."

We've had kids

at Olympic trials.

We've had Olympic medalists.

My proudest thing about Robbie

is that if I said,

"Pick out the kid

that was also competing

in the Special Olympics,"

you couldn't look over

there and pick him out.

He just blends right in.

Robbie is swimming 2 hours

a day, 6 days a week.

He's swimming for three teams.

Scarlet,

he swims for the high school,

and he also swims

for the Hammerheads.

Robbie was first diagnosed

with autism around 18 months.

He was close to 2 years old.

What I heard was

very frightening.

They spoke about mental

retardation, how he was not

going to be able to speak

or function like typical kids.

I was in school,

and I decided

to drop college to raise him.

Everybody, count your strokes!

He has showed improvement,

but we have

a long journey to go.

He's in the 11th grade,

and, for example, reading,

he's at a fourth-grade level.

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