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A Letter to Parents: Excellence Requires Sacrifice

By Ben Sutton, SwimSwam, 12/14/18, 12:00PM PST

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I commit to you that my overriding
priority for each one of your children is to teach them to work hard and enjoy what they are doing.

Please understand that I have my own 9-year-old son who currently swims on our team. My overriding priority is his lifelong happiness.

As a kid I was an exceptional athlete in multiple sports and ended up swimming in college and competing with and against the best swimmers in the world. 

If it wasn’t for swimming I would have never gone to college and earned a degree. I was a punk kid who took everything for granted and wasted away many of my talents as a youth.

If you ask me why I coach its because I absolutely love it, but that is because I want kids to learn from my mistakes and the crazy journey I had along the way.