Water Rites Swim Lessons Are An Important Milestone In Everyone’S Life

It was time for the swim class to start.

About half a dozen kids, ages 5 and 6, eased into the shallow end of the pool. They held on to the side.

But one little boy was afraid. He didn’t want to get in the water.

Chad Egger, the 18-year-old instructor, sloshed over to the edge of the pool and beckoned the boy with a crooked index finger.

Tentatively, the wary child approached.

Egger cupped a hand and whispered into the boy’s ear. “Do you know who I am?”

The lad indicated that he didn’t.

“I’m Superman,” said Egger.

This surprised the boy. He hadn’t expected to encounter the Man of Steel at the Shadle Park Pool. Who knew?

But it also gave him a shot of confidence. With Egger’s help, he got into the water.

“If you’re Superman, you won’t let go of me,” the boy declared.

Egger offered a reassuring smile.

Not everyone who learns to swim does so with the assistance of a superhero. But many can vividly remember the circumstances, because swimming lessons are a special milestone.

They can be the passport to a lifetime of classic hot-weather recreation. But for some, all sorts of anxieties stand in the way.

“You get a lot of tears and kids looking at parents with big eyes,” said Rip Horsey, aquatics supervisor for the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department.

Enter Chad Egger.

The recent graduate of Shadle Park High is a water- safety instructor with a flock of very young friends.

To the little kids in his classes at the Shadle Park pool, it doesn’t matter that he has lanky good looks or that he was the quarterback of his high-scoring high school football team. No, the thing that crowns Egger the King of Summer in their eyes is that he makes them feel safe.

It’s a big deal.

Speaking softly and watching his charges like a mellow mother grizzly, he exudes a sense that everything is going to be OK.

When he touches the kids, he’s gentle but sure.

“He’s wonderful,” said Ann Bennett, a North Sider whose son has been one of Egger’s pupils. “I love him.”

The goal of the lessons for the young children is to get them used to being in the water and to prepare them for more advanced training. There’s a lot of blowing bubbles underwater and learning to float.

Though he was a lifeguard previously, this is his first summer as an instructor.

“I was really nervous at first,” said Egger, who has been swimming since he was a preschooler.

He got over it.

Expertly reading the kids’ faces, he soothes apprehension with his contagious calmness.

“OK, this is going to be fun. Everybody doin’ all right?”

The water is over the kids’ heads. But panic doesn’t stand a chance.

Someone’s watching over them, and they know it.

Crouched in the water so that just his head is above the surface, Egger rewards each willingness to try something new with a “Good job” or “That’s it, buddy.”

But he is not one of those robotic dispensers of self-esteem strokes.

“High-five,” he said to one little boy while holding up his hand as a dripping target.

The kid, hanging on to the side of the pool with one hand, shot out his other small hand to smack Egger’s. But just as he did so, the King of Summer moved his and made the kid miss.

The little boy’s face lit up and he blurted an involuntary sound of delight - “Urrgl!” You would have thought the made-you-miss trick was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him.

One of the parents entrusting a child to Egger is Lisa Peterson. She was one of his high school teachers at Shadle Park.

“Chad is a caring person who happens to be a natural leader,” she said. “It’s just a true part of who he is. He’s a great kid.”

So, too, are lots of the area’s other water safety instructors, most of whom are female.

But there’s something singularly hopeful about seeing a strapping young man protecting a wet cluster of vulnerable little kids.

“If he ever wanted to become a teacher, he would do well,” said Rip Horsey. “He’s got the right personality.”

Egger will attend Western Washington University in the fall.

But for now, standing tall in the eyes of some small fry keeps him pretty busy.

“I like when I can see that they’re starting to have fun,” he said, smiling.

Cautious confidence is his gift to them.

Years from now, when people are talking about learning to swim, at least one person who attended classes this summer at the Shadle Park pool will have a story that’ll be tough to top.

“I got my first lessons from Superman,” he’ll be able to say.

Sure, listeners will scoff. But if that guy recalls Chad Egger with any clarity, chances are he’ll just smile and remember.

Not all our heroes wear capes.