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GREENSBORO - Tre'Sean Cooks is the reason I love my job.

I met him last week at the swim meet between Grimsley and Smith. I guess you'd call it a meet. There wasn't much competition to be found.

As I walked into Grimsley, I saw the Whirlies, some 100 strong, huddled in the far end of the pool, listening to the direction of longtime coach Durante Griffin and whooping themselves into a frenzy. They are a perennially powerful program.

Where is Smith? I wondered. There was nobody else in the pool. Then I noticed seven kids sitting in folding chairs along the other edge of the facility, wearing assorted shades of green and looking like they were waiting for a bus instead of a starting pistol. Ladies and gentlemen, the Golden Eagles swim team.

"And only one of them could swim at the start of the year," head coach Titus Duff said. "Other than that, no problem."

Despite being one of the few schools in the county with a pool, this is an annual problem at Smith. Last year's team finished with two swimmers. Assistant coach Spencer Abraham said he hasn't seen more than five make it through a season in the six years he's been there.

Duff, a Smith alum and 2007 N.C. A&T graduate, was working as a lifeguard at Smith when he heard about this job opening last year. Duff didn't swim at Smith until he was a junior, but within a year was competing in regionals. He wanted to make that difference for someone else.

"You've got to start somewhere," he said. "That's what I tell them -- if you want to be better, it's up to you."

But even he didn't realize how far back he'd have to start. These are not the well-oiled year-round swimmers who wriggle through the water like tadpoles in Speedos. Senior Barbara Thomas, the lone returnee from last year's team, was the only one who could make it to the other end of the pool and back at the start of the year. Jesse Lavelle joined the team only because his wrestling and track careers were cut short by a serious knee injury. Cooks, a sophomore, was just looking for anything athletic to do in his spare time.

"Most kids don't even know we have a pool," Cooks said.

For Duff, the task became a lot like teaching the toddlers he works with as a lifeguard. Small steps, constant encouragement, small victories wherever you can take them.

It's apparent from the opening whistle how much experience Smith has to make up for. During one race Friday, as all the other girls in her heat whizzed by like torpedoes, one Smith swimmer's goggles came off halfway through the pool. She paddled with them in one hand the rest of the way.

"They can never be too tight," Duff told her after the race. "I'm proud of you for finishing."

Of course, Duff and Abraham worried about keeping the spirits up on a team where first place isn't even a viable goal yet. During one relay race, all the other teams had finished by the time Cooks even started his anchor leg.

But Cooks and his teammates are about the most relentlessly upbeat kids you'll meet. Within minutes of that relay, Cooks is telling you about all the reasons he loves swimming now, how far he thinks he can make it by the time he graduates, how much he enjoys being part of a team. He said he didn't even notice he was the last one left in the race.

"I'm going to try my hardest before anyone can say I didn't try," he said. "Even if I come in last, at least I swam my hardest."

Four weeks ago, Cooks swam the 50-meter freestyle, his best event, in 47 seconds. When he touched the wall last Friday, he looked over and saw Lavelle, who had been finishing way ahead of him all year, finishing at the same time. Then he looked at the scoreboard: 32 seconds.

"I thought, 'Wow!' " Cooks said. " 'Did I really do this?' "

There are so many people these days -- myself included -- who can't even pick up the newspaper sometimes because the bad news never stops coming. The sports page is supposed to be our diversion, and we feel increasingly betrayed when the athletes we adore thump their chests for more money or more glory or more attention than they deserve.

But the Smith swim team reminds me of all the beautifully unassuming competitors still left in the world, those who play just for the sake of playing and remind us that if you're willing to work and wait, goals you never thought possible can become reality.

"That's the best thing about it, it really is," Duff said. "I keep stressing to them, it's not going to come in one season, but it's going to come."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com