Swim Team

I'm not like other teenagers. I'm autistic.

When I'm swimming, I feel normal.

It feels amazing from when I swim.

If you want gold medals,

you have to work hard and train hard.

Well, that's my dream.

So I want to become faster than Michael Phelps,

and I want to be the second one

that people will crowd and want to cheer me.

It made me feel tough to do that freestyle breaststroke.

The correct way is, like, 100 percent.

The front stroke may be a little bit tough,

but the breaststroke maybe really hard.

That's going to make me feel tired if I do any competing,

what makes me tired

when I'm doing competing at the swim meet.

All right, boys. Listen up. We want to make Mike...

We want him proud.

So, you have to give... Do it fast as you can.

Mike, he's doing back, and him doing a breast.

For me, I'll do fly, and the last is freestyle.

So, guys, give it the best as you got.

-Okay. -All right.

-Who's with me? -All right.

-Hammerheads! -Hammerheads!

Inside a bomb is a type of... It has diamonds.

I should not say that in public.

SWIM TEAM

Subrip: Pix

Right? We're going to swim until we win. Right?

-Yup. -You know it.

-Yup. -Right? We're going for gold?

Check it out, Robert.

-They're amateur. -We are what?

What are we called?

-The Jersey Hammer shark heads. -The Hammerheads.

Hammerheads is a word... Hammershead.

-Hammerhead. -It's a shark.

We are the sharks. You know it.

Also, here comes the jersey.

And I love your leather jacket.

You earned it. Right, buddy?

A hundred dollars.

But I'm saying you earned your jacket.

Look at that. That is awesome, Robert.

-It's beautiful. -Isn't that beautiful?

-Yes. -That is awesome.

Our team, they're all autistic.

They all have some type of autism spectrum disorder,

which is not very common for a swim team.

I'm going to introduce you to my husband,

who's the head coach.

-Okay. -Okay?

Mike, this is Marisol. Hi.

Hey. How are you doing, Marisol?

-Mike, this is Jay. -Jay, how are you?

You going to swim with us this year?

-Yes. -Yes?

One time or other, all of our kids have been ostracized,

and for them to be a part of the team is unbelievable.

Let's spread out just a little bit, just a little bit,

just a little bit, just a little bit,

just a little bit, just a little bit, little bit.

Everybody, touch the sky.

Touch the sky, high as you can go.

Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it.

Hold it!

Okay. Good guys.

Welcome. Thank you guys for coming today.

So we are now called the Jersey Hammerheads.

Right?

So we're sharks now.

-It's easy. -Yeah, son.

And there's a float. And there's a float.

You're going to swim if it kills me.

-Yeah. Don't you worry. -Listen to me. Listen to me.

Our kids, they love the water.

God forbid they happen to go to the water,

and they jump in the pool if they didn't know how to swim.

They couldn't help themselves. They'd drown.

Give me your hand.

Do not touch those ropes. Are you ready?

I'm going to give you a push. Ready?

-One, two, three. Push. -Go. You better swim.

You better swim!

I can't save you! You better swim!

Arms over the top, over the top!

What are you saying?

As a mom with an autistic child,

we always knew, because we had a pool, that Michael had

to learn to swim, had to.

Mikey, now good kick. You got to kick hard off the wall.

Ready? Swimmers on your mark.

Go!

The doctors told us that Michael would never talk.

He would never be able to change his own pants,

that he would never be self-sufficient,

and I think it just took trail and error for me

and my wife not giving up so that he would do more.

We said, "We're not going to give up on him.

He can do something. We just have to spend time with him."

Look at me. Do the backstroke going down at one arm.

One-arm catch-up, one-arm catch-up.

Swimmers on your mark. Go!

His swimming has improved tremendously. He loves it,

and we wanted the opportunity for him to continue swimming.

This hand comes across and over top, okay?

Go. Push off the wall. Push!

So my husband and I

got our own Special Olympics swim team.

No slap, no slap, push.

Over the top, face in the water!

Breathe! Breathe! There you go! Swim!

Coaching a special-needs team versus a regular swim team,

it's night and day.

Every kid in the pool is different.

Getting with kids that have never swam

or are afraid of the water,

they have sensory issues as far as touch, sound.

You have to have patience. Four-laps freestyle.

Not so fun.

I want you to try it for me, okay?

-I'm still your friend. -You're always my friend.

Try it for me, please? No. I don't want to do it.

-Hey, listen. -Hey, two laps.

Let's do 50 free and 50 breaststroke.

You like the breast.

-No. No, I don't. -Fifty-fifty?

Let's try it. No.

What are you going to do for me then?

I need you to swim.

I want to try one time because I won't like that much.

Okay. Let's do two laps then.

-Yeah. -Two laps.

Swimmers on your mark. Hate that one.

You love the breaststroke. Come on.

-I'm still... -You ready?

You ready? Here we go. Swimmers on your mark.

Go! Go!

Just have to work with him a little bit.

He's good, though.

We have zero money. Okay?

So we're going to have to fund raise, fund raise, fund raise.

All right? Everybody here needs new swim gear.

We got to get that.

We want everybody to get a bag like that.

Okay? You know, that's my goal.

I want everybody to look uniform.

I want everybody to have the same of everything.

There's three competitions that we do.

The first is called the Area.

Then the Sectional is bigger, and then you have the big daddy,

which is the summer games.

That's the entire state of New Jersey.

You're giving kids an opportunity.

I mean, I see the...

Michael wouldn't have had the opportunity

if it wasn't for my wife and any other people that got involved.

There would be no opportunity.

Underwater, I sound like a fish, like, really fast and all.

And I come up like a dolphin or a seal.

And I go fast like a whale.

See you!

Robert.

So I have a timeline up here.

So you can go over the millions,

and you can name four lines with your ruler, in green,

and each represents 200,000 years.

Okay. So let's take a look at 2.4.

Where would that be located

if we're looking at a million years ago?

-It's right here. -Well, here's your 2.

-Yeah. -So we're going back

in time, so 2 million.

And each one is how much?

-Four. -Well, 2, right?

-Well, yeah. -So this is 2.2.

-Two-point... Yeah. -Two, right?

-Yeah. -Then 2-point...

-Three? -No. Each one is 2.

-2.4? -We have to fight every step

of the way to get the services that we needed for Michael...

Speech therapy, occupational therapy,

physical therapy, a trained aide.

We had to hire an advocate.

Everything has a cost, and it's a big cost,

but, you know, we do what we have to do.

You know, we borrowed money.

You know, I even told 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.