SHARKY

I remember being in 8th grade in Victor swimming on the Junior High Swim Team.  Our season had just ended and somehow the word got to me that Mr. Shields wanted to see me, and I think, Billy Glitch.  The Varsity Swim Team had two more meets that year and Mr. Shields wanted us to swim in them, even though we were not officially freshman, yet!  It was, probably, the most exciting thing that had happened to me in my 14 years of living at that point!!!  I remember the meets in the big pool up on the hill, and I remember I even beat some guys that were in High School!  In retrospect the most important part of that exciting event was meeting and getting to know Mr. Shields.  

I swam for him the next 4 years and we won a lot of meets and went pretty far in sectionals. I was co-captain of the High School Swim Team both my sophomore and Junior years.  Yes, we had before school practices. (6am) These were voluntary, but we always went because Coach Shields wanted us to!  After school were “dry land drills” for an hour, and then a good 3 hour practice in the pool.  Coach was there for all of it.  Every single school day, and of course, we had Saturday practices, too. We happily, eagerly, did all of this, because Mr. Shields was in his quiet, funny, and lead by example way, the most inspirational person I have ever known. 

Mr. Shields was, also, my water safety instructor. This allowed me to teach swimming to younger kids during the summer at Victor, and kept me employed as a lifeguard at the school and around town for years to come as I moved toward college.  You see, Keith Shields was everything aquatic at Victor Central.  Everyone knew him, everyone liked him, and quite simply we would have walked through fire if he had asked us to.  Thankfully, he just asked us to swim our butts off and beat most every team we swam against...

I’ve been gone from Victor for a long time.  I live in Los Angeles, now, and I rarely swim anymore.  I’m an actor in TV, Movies and Commercials.  It’s a hard profession.  It requires incredible dedication, self motivation, perseverance, and luck.  Coach Shields taught me all of these.  Coach Shields put me here, and the smile that I get when I think of my Victor days and all those countless hours in the old pool with Sharky looking out for us, keeps me here.

I think it is so darn awesome that Victor built a new aquatic center!  In these days of cuts for cuts sake, it’s a brilliant move that will put smiles on the faces of Victor youth for ages to come.  Thank you tax payers!!  But, “Taxpayer Aquatic Center,” just doesn’t have much of a ring to it.  I don’t know the Victor Board of Education.  I couldn’t tell you the name of anyone on it.  I’ll bet they are great people, and I really don’t think this is a case of doing the right, or the wrong thing.  If they don’t name the Center after Keith Shields I think they are simply missing an opportunity. An opportunity to forever tie the past, right through the present, and into the future. An opportunity to forever tie that beautiful new building to the man that was everything aquatic at Victor Central for so many, many years.  An opportunity to forever tie Victor to the name of the most inspirational person I have ever known.  

“Keith Shields Aquatic Center.”  Now, that has a ring to it...