Theodore D. Young Community Center in Greenburgh NY

The year was 1987 and desegregation had hit Yonkers public schools. Without desegregation, I  never would have known the racism that existed in Yonkers. In my own neighborhood I learned that a fence and land barrier was created to keep "black traffic" from Runyon Heights out of Homefield.  Through the years I attended grammar school 1979-1986 the racial mix that was the norm for a classroom in North Yonkers would be 1 black child, maybe 2 at most. In 1987 classes ceased to be all white.

Because of desegregation I was bused to South Yonkers. I was in the "High and Wide" track that became known as Pearls. It was in an accelerated program for the "gifted".  My family thought it was wise to stay in this program because there were rumors that Emerson would become "rough". Because of this I went to Hawthorne for 8th grade and my Freshman year of High School.

Nicole Ryan was one of the classmates that I would ride the bus with to school. I'd stop off at her apartment sometimes to have a snack before walking home. Our mothers had been friends ever since grade school. She had swam on the Silver Streaks swim team for a few years and her mother had suggested to mine that we go to tryouts during July of 1987. Bobby Ryan's theory was, if you keep your kids busy, it's hard for them to get into trouble. A swim team is a great way to do this because practice is 5 times a week and there are a lot of meets.

A Silver Streaks logo that was screened onto blue sweat pants. This was part of the team uniform at the time.

My sister and I went to tryouts during the month of July and were told that we made the team. My mother said, "Heather was a more desirable candidate because they could see the drive in her. She was younger and I was old to start swimming. They were willing to take us as a package and take a chance on me because they could see the potential in Heather".  It was really true. I was thirteen at the time and had never competitively swam before. I was really, really slow and did not have the natural drive to go fast at all. Heather was a dynamo and the type of kid that would get into practice or a race and swim her heart out until she threw up. Most likely every coaches dream.

I have a few memories of my time on the Streaks swimming at the Theodore Young Community Center as an age grouper. I can't tell which memories are from technique tryouts or team practice, everything blends together.

I do remember being put on a dry land machine to fix my freestyle stroke to have a pull that is more conducive for competitive swimming. I would do sets, wearing long flippers to learn the fly. Videos were also taken above the water so you could see what your stroke actually looked like.

Mr. and Mrs. Silverman

I remember Mrs. Silverman wearing a dark suit in the water working on my breaststroke kick. She would grab my ankles and move them into the proper positions. Flex, turnout, whip, together, was repeated over and over until I got the feel for a legal breaststroke kick. She is the reason that I don't kick illegally today. She had a lot of patience and really wanted you to be your best.

Mr. Silverman was coaching the team when I started out in the lane with the 5 year olds. It takes a lot of work to be able to swim fast and I was amazed at how fast these 5 year olds where when I started swimming with them. Imagine a 13 year old who was just shy of 5' 10" swimming with these little kids, getting run over and essentially having her ass kicked. I"m sure it looked comical.

One day I was swimming in the 5 year old lane and I was struggling with kicking. I didn't understand how to kick and I was barely keeping up. The whole team was kicking in their lanes and Mr. Silverman blew the whistle. He stopped the whole pool, looked at me and pointed. "You! You're not kicking! Where is the white water?! What are you playing with your barbie dolls?!" and I thought to myself "How does he know"? (I was a very young 13 and still played with dolls.) After that I wondered if Mr. Silverman had the ability to see into your mind.

I also had a terrible fear of diving into the water. As I would fall into the water over and over again off the blocks, I remember the frustration on Mr. Silverman's face. You see, back then the blocks were on the shallow end of the pool so my fear wasn't totally off base. You had to dive into roughly 4 feet of water.