Voted upon by divisional peers since 2014, the Margaret Gilbert Award recognizes teams that best exemplify the good sportsmanship that Margaret demonstrated.  She was the long time coach of the Maple Ridge Manta Rays who exhibited a wonderful balance of leadership, sportsmanship and competitiveness and always helped foster a fun environment for her teams as well as the visiting teams.  Her grace and spirit are remembered by swimmers and friends throughout the League and her legacy carries on through the yearly award recipients.

June 28, 2016

Dear GCSL Nominating Committee,

      Our six-year old daughter, Sunny Lee, is the youngest of four children and up until last night, no one referred to her a swimmer. Trust us; NO ONE and here’s our back story.

     Sunny Lee is a three year member of Cedar Creek Swim and Racquet Club’s Stingrays team under the direction of Dave Reason. Since age four, Sunny Lee will tell you under no uncertain terms that she dislikes cold water, can’t stand it when people splash her and she is much more interested in the concession stand and playing house with Samuel on her monogrammed unicorn towel with her “Dolly” than getting her hair wet.

     Sunny Lee, unlike her three older brothers, is less than compliant when it comes to swimming and she has proven herself utterly uncoachable in the water – until last night. After three agonizing seasons as a Stingray, Sunny Lee not only swam her very first 25 free against Eastmont Cove but she did not get “dee-Q-ded” (as she calls it), did not once touch the wall, the lane rope or the bottom and she earned a 5^th place ribbon and scored two points for the team!

     This Stingrays miracle would not have been possible without the patient tutelage of Coach Dave Reason. That man jumped in the pool too many times to count to work specifically with Sunny Lee every morning at 10 AM for the last three summers. He held her in his arms and paraded her around during swim meets building her confidence. He promised her a Mario figurine, a bouquet of Dum Dums, a Barbie book, Sour Skittles and the mother-load of Air Heads if she would show forward progress and paid for it all out of his own pocket. He encouraged her at every turn to get in the water, grab the purple kick board (her favorite), blow bubbles, kick her feet or simply sit with her friends on the side of the pool every day during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons. And, he not only did this during the week, but worked with her every Saturday at 9 AM too and kept us, the parents, calm during the storms for THREE V-E-R-Y LONG SUMMERS.

     Coach Dave pulled the best out of our rising first grader, as he has also done for our boys and all the children under his watchful eye (albeit a little easier journey), and we now know that without a shadow of a doubt that for at least 54.54 seconds, our precious daughter can dog paddle to the side of a pool in the event she falls in. My husband and I will never be able to repay the kindness shown to our family, but we can, at the very least, nominate Dave Reason for GCSL Coach of the Year with an incredibly full heart.

Respectfully,

Joel & Cindi Burck Alsobrook