Photo of the Day: Climbing Into the Hat

That's Maddie and a teammate and coaches, Mac McNally and Matt Doughty, holding the stretched swim cap.

One of the boys is completely wrapped in the hat.

Swimmer climbs into the hat (that's Maddie jumping into the water).

Maddie's head coach Andy Huray climbs into the stretched swim cap. That's quite a stretch.

Maddie (center) and the girls see if they can stretch the cap out. They didn't

Sometimes, late in the season when practices become drudgery, a little youthful hi-jinx saves the day. That was the case this morning at my grandgirl Madeline's swim practice at Hunting Hills Country Club, where the team is preparing for the season-ending City-County meet next week.

The kids are worn out, a little bored and distracted. So a couple of the teen-age coaches come up with a scheme. They take a team swim cap, which fits tightly on a person's head, and stretch it out by pulling it up from the bottom of the pool and letting it fill with water. The caps are quite pliable and this one became big enough for a couple of kids to get in. They did and the coaches pulled them around for a bit before giving other kids a shot at it.

Ultimately, the head coach, Andy, who weighs about 170 or so pounds got in. All the way in. Kids loved it.