Resolutions

from 20230104

Fiction

Amélie Ogilby swims for the local club swim team, Team Sopris, or the Sopris Barracudas as their fans know them. Recently, the 17-year-old athlete made her way to the Junior Nationals in Austin, Texas — a historic accomplishment for the Barracudas.

From an early age, Ogiliby, now a junior at Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS), realized she loved being in the water. Her parents — knowing the same — signed her up for Team Sopris at the age of 6. “I’ve been on the same team ever since,” Ogilby told The Sopris Sun.

Ogilby’s great-grandfather, Trahern Ogilby, was a swimmer and her grandpa, Chuck — who competed in college — loves jumping in the pool to swim laps with his granddaughter.

“What I didn’t really realize was how much of a history my family has in the sport,” Ogilby continued. “Being able to appreciate that in the last couple of years has been really cool.”

In fact, her great-grandpa, Trahern, broke the national high school record in the 200-meter freestyle. For Ogilby’s recent birthday, Chuck gifted her her greatgrandfather’s trophy from that record-breaking meet. “It’s really special to have that with me,” she shared.

“We have three generations of swimmers now; because my dad will come swim with us and my grandpa. It’s a family aff air,” she laughed.

Regarding the Barracudas, Ogilby said she wouldn’t rather swim with any other team. “They’re my people, my family,” she stated. “It’s so cool to be a part of this team … and to be able to represent at these bigger meets.”

Ogilby credits much of the team’s success to its head coach, Steve Vanderhoof, who recently traveled with the young athlete to the Junior Nationals in Texas. “He’s been there for every single athlete in the way that he’s been there for me,” she said of her coach. Fittingly, back in 1970, Vanderhoof was part of the fi rst-ever Team Sopris swim team at the age of 12.

Last summer at a meet in California, Ogilby achieved a “cut” time and earned a spot at the Junior Nationals — a goal she’s had but previously assumed she’d have to wait another year before achieving.

The Junior Nationals meet was the biggest Ogilby has yet to attend, where she swam with some of the country’s top contestants. “Watching them was so humbling and such an amazing experience … to witness national records dropping, junior world records dropping,” she exhaled. “It was crazy.” Ogilby placed 14th in the mile race with a time of 16:49.

While the opportunity was one for the books, Ogilby missed her teammates and is looking forward to swimming alongside her fellow Barracudas at upcoming meets. “It’s so fun to see everyone come together, be a team and support each other,” she refl ected.

During Junior Nationals, she particularly missed her training partner, Bennet Jones, a senior at CRMS and Ogilby’s best friend who she says is just as “insane” (in a good way) as she is. Jones, also a Barracuda, is up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to train with Ogilby. “She’s my training partner, best friend, partner in crime, whatever you want to call it,” Ogilby summarized.

Clearly, Ogilby is not the type of athlete to hoard her success; says she wouldn’t be where she is without the camaraderie between her and Jones, plus the support of her parents and Coach Vanderhoof. “They are the main reason I could get to this meet,” she declared.

“The thing about that meet [Junior Nationals] was that she was swimming against Olympic swimmers — people who broke American records — and we were right there with these people,” said Vanderhoof. Next, according to her coach, Ogilby needs to qualify for summer Junior Nationals, then Olympic trials. “That’s her goal: to go to the Olympic trials, and we’re not very far away,” he added.

According to Coach Vanderhoof, Ogilby and Jones push each other and motivate the younger swimmers. “One of the things that’s so great about these two girls is that they’re developing the whole team just by being in the pool,” he said. Jones is signed on to swim at Pomona-Pitzer beginning in the fall.

Her mile-time at Junior Nationals qualifi ed her for the TYR Pro Series where she’ll have the opportunity to compete against professional swimmers like Katie Ledecky, her dad proudly pointed out to The Sopris Sun. He added that Ogilby is but a couple of seconds from hitting the timestandard for the 400-meter individual medley to qualify for the US Open.

To keep up with Team Sopris and for a schedule of upcoming meets, visit www. teamsopris.org

Amélie Ogilby (center, right) with her family and Coach Vanderhoof (center, left) at the Junior Nationals in Austin, Texas. Courtesy photo

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Ernest Hemingway, arguably one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, once said of his craft: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

It’s not quite as melodramatic as Hemingway suggests, but you get the gist of his message. Being a writer can, at times, be frustrating and seem like a futile venture.

Over the years, the Aspen Writers’ Network has grown and expanded its program to become one element of Aspen Words, the literary arm of the Aspen Institute.

Mark Tompkins, a member of the Aspen Writers’ Network steering committee, said the group has met “in various forms” since January 2011. In February 2022, they began hosting monthly meetings at Carbondale’s Bonfire Coffee at 433 Main Street (on the third Thursday at 6:30 p.m.).

Aspen Words “has always considered it important to support writers, Valley-wide. It was a matter of working out exactly how best to do that and how to give them the resources they needed,” Tompkins said.

Deciding to take “the writing life” more seriously, this reporter attended a weekend-long Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference in Aurora last September. No matter the topic of the workshop, one message came through loud and clear — find yourself a writer’s community.

By its very nature, writing is a solitary endeavor. It’s you and a laptop or notebook. The blank screen or page can be intimidating, and lonely. Writers speak a different language — literally — with terms like “agent pitch meetings” and “query letters.” Finding a community of others striving for similar goals, can bring some reassurance that you are not alone.

Fortunately, at that conference, I happened upon fellow Roaring Fork Valley writers, Lindsay DeFrates and Andrea Chacos, who told me about the Aspen Writers’ Network monthly meetings in Carbondale.

Tompkins emphasized, “Primarily, we provide community. They say writing is hard — it’s not coal miner hard, but it’s kind of an emotional hardness, especially if you plan to put [your work] out. Whether you're writing short or long, fiction or nonfiction, you need a community of like-minded souls to gather and support each other.”

“One of the keys to success this year was Bonfire being willing to donate their space on a regular basis, so that we have a home people can count on,” he added of the mid-valley meeting location in 2022.

The Aspen Writers’ Network steering committee consists of Tompkins, Chacos, DeFrates and Lisanne Rogers. Tompkins said they seek input from group members to determine what kind of presentations are of interest and events are then scheduled accordingly.

Essential organizational support comes from Ivy Chalmers, Aspen Words program coordinator, who provides assistance with, for example, the logistics for bringing in an agent or author to give a presentation to the group.

“It’s a very friendly, supportive and diverse group,” Tompkins shared, and the first meeting is at no charge to decide whether or not it is right for you. The next step to join is to become a member of Aspen Words, whose annual membership fee is $150. However, Tompkins emphasized, financial assistance is available if someone is unable to pay.

Another eccentricity of many writers is starting writing projects, but being unable to make it across the finish line. “Without that community, it's hard to get through writing projects on a regular basis,” Tompkins explained.

He noted that they do not facilitate writing review groups. He said, “That is something that requires a commitment to both read and provide work on a regular basis. Review groups are better when they’re small, but we do help people start those if anybody wants to start one.”

For me, by joining the Aspen Writers’ Network, I have found “my writer peeps,” which, to some degree, brings me the peace of mind to face the blank computer screen, knowing I have colleagues who speak the same language of writing.

For more information about the Aspen Writers’ Network, visit www.aspenwords.org/programs/ aspen-writers-network