Swim Team Page #2

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my husband,

"If we have to sell the house,

we'll sell the house."

Do we even need

to go over that far?

-No.

-No.

So you can put a line pretty

close to that tick mark there.

He's a senior now.

He's graduating from

high school in a few months,

but he's not ready for college.

Right?

And we don't know

if he can get a job.

He was about 21/2,

2, 21/2 years old.

He just stopped talking.

He went from trying to say,

"Mom" and "Dad,"

not to saying anything, and then

loved to be alone after that,

always liked to be alone.

Just started lining toys up,

animals up, cars,

but the main thing was animals.

He would line everything up,

and if you moved it,

he would know exactly

that something was missing.

When I was a little kid, my

favorite animals were elephants.

Now my favorite

animals now are apes.

I got this elephant

from Puerto Rico

when I was little

and this little Chihuahua

named Cookie.

I used to play

with my little sister.

This little Dalmatian

with a green shirt.

This Dalmatian was my cousin's,

and his name was Poochie

because, you know, dog, pooch.

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.

So what classes you have

today, Robbie, in school?

Just drawing, printing,

health class,

math, English, and history.

Yeah?

-Yep.

-How was your printing class?

Because I know you like

that class, right?

-Just I work hard in printing.

-You worked really hard?

What you did today?

Just picked a comic

characters

to print the characters.

-You have to draw them?

-Yep.

Which one did you pick?

-Batman.

-Okay.

In health,

what did they talk about?

-It's about the sex movie.

-The sex movie?

They sent to a web site, and

they also talk about the HIV.

The HIV. Okay. Okay.

What is... What did

they tell you about HIV?

It's about doctors,

so they tell about doctors

and tell you about sex.

Sex?

-Yeah, like, drunk stuff.

-Okay.

Did you understand

what they meant?

-Just I don't know.

-You don't know?

It was a lot of information?

-Too much information.

-Too much information, okay.

Just I don't

like health class.

You don't like health class?

-Nope.

-Well, I didn't know

they were going to

teach you about sex, Robert.

Did they talk to you about that?

-They told me.

-Okay.

They told us.

-I don't feel like talking.

-Okay.

I didn't know that

they were going to...

Sit over here with me,

honey.

Okay.

I mean, if you're not ready

to talk about it, it's fine.

I understand.

The reason why I chose Robert

to join the Hammerheads

is because Robert doesn't know,

right now, that he has autism.

Robbie feels that he's a typical

kid, and he has never asked me,

is there something

different about him?

I don't want to break his heart,

but he needs to know.

Kelvin is autistic.

He also have Tourette Syndrome.

-B*tch!

-I know!

-No... b*tch!

-No, no. Stop.

Stop. Right.

In the water, stay in the water.

I need you in the water.

-Ass!

-No.

He has body tics

and vocal tics.

Swimmers on your mark.

Go! In!

But he cannot control that.

He's not doing those on purpose.

No. No, no. No.

-That's very dangerous.

-That's very dang...

Going to hurt yourself.

I know. I know the tics

bother you, but you're okay.

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Hey. You guys are getting

timed on this today.

He has two disability,

so he's kind of balancing

each other on and off.

Sometimes,

he's getting more tics.

Maybe he has more tics,

then he doesn't have the time

to do the autism thing.

You say the F word?

I'm sorry. I curse a lot.

Let's go, in the water.

Vincent, in the water.

-Don't you ever say the F word.

-Kelvin!

Twenty-five-meter breaststroke,

25-meter free coming back.

-Okay.

-Swimmers on your mark. Go!

Last night,

I was feeling stress.

I'm not telling you I hate you.

Yeah.

Are you supposed to do that?

-No.

-No.

You're not supposed to say that.

No. No.

Sometimes, say,

"I want to kill you,"

but it wouldn't be very nice.

I might get in trouble.

Yeah.

So what do you do

when you get angry, Kel?

-Just do right thing.

-What is the right thing to do?

Right thing you have to do

is some... do right choice.

You have to do something...

If I tell someone I feel angry,

we should use anger management.

Anger management! Yes.

Sometime, when you guys

were not home,

sometimes, I was home by myself.

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