Miami Dolphins lifeguard turned goaltender educates Florida kids on water safety – Miami Dolphins blog

MIAMI – Miami Dolphins goalie Solomon Kindley has worn the nickname “Big Fish” since he was little, but he really earned that nickname in the summer of 2016 while visiting the lake house. from Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart.

Smart hosted a group of freshmen for some fun in the water after summer practice. Bulldogs running back Brian Herrien, who couldn’t swim, was wearing a life jacket and camping in the shallow end, but once Kindley and his teammates decided to get the boat out he didn’t want to be left behind and asked to join him.

The players began to throw the soccer ball and take turns hanging onto the float attached to the back of the boat. Herrien accidentally let go of the float and it flew into the middle of the lake as the boat pulled away. Kindley, a high school lifeguard, intervened.

“He was panicking and splashing and splashing. So I jumped in to save him and held him until the boat came to get us,” Kindley said. “What’s crazy is that his head was above the water the whole time, so he wasn’t really drowning, but he was panicking. When I got to him, we both started to laugh. We talk about it every time I see it, and it’s become a joke around the team. “

Kindley, a 6-foot-4, 335-pound goalie entering his second season with the Dolphins, says he’s the fastest swimmer in the NFL and thinks people reading this won’t believe him when they see him . He’s always been a big kid and remembers what happened in elementary school when he competed in swimming races in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. As he entered the pool and while swimming, he could hear the parents laughing and making sarcastic comments about him.

“I had doubts all my life when I entered the pool because of my size,” Kindley said. “I remember people whispering about what I was doing here. They asked me if I was a lifeguard or a dad. I was a young child. Then I got in the water and j smoked everyone in my running group. “

It’s no surprise that Kindley is using the pool to give back to Florida’s youth. In June, Kindley began a partnership with the Progressive Firefighters Association to help approximately 500 Miami-area children learn to swim and protect themselves in the water, and to help older children become lifeguards through donations from the Children’s Trust. This is a free seven week program held at Charles Hadley Park in Miami. The program is open to anyone, but the focus is on helping black children break down the stigma that they can’t swim.

When Kindley first started thinking about starting his own swim camp, the Dolphins public relations team suggested he team up with the Progressive Firefighters, a group of current and retired African-American firefighters who volunteer their time to lead. a program in the Miami area. Kindley and his agent, Toney Scott, quickly jumped at the idea.

Keith Bell, a Miami Fire Department chief and president of the Progressive Firefighters Association, described the goal of the program as “wanting to protect our community from drowning.”

Kindley remembers her first swimming “lesson”. He and his brothers used to sneak out of the house and go to the local community pool while their mother was at work, and one day they were thrown into the 12-foot-deep section of the swimming pool by an older man who felt the fight-or-flight instinct for children would compel them to swim. Bell, who is black, says he learned to swim the same way.

“About 80% of my teammates, whether they’re in high school, college or the pros, can’t swim,” Kindley said. “When I was a lifeguard – I worked with younger children – I would give them advice to learn it at a younger age when you listen to and respect your parent, or whoever is teaching you. As you get older, you have more scared and it gets harder.

“Water can be a lot of fun. Water can be very dangerous. [Through this program], these children will learn CPR, first aid, learn to swim if they don’t know it, and obtain lifeguard certification. It will give them a head start on the world from something simple like a swimming lesson. “

According to the Florida Department of Health, from 2017 to 2019, Florida had the nation’s highest unintentional drowning death rate for children 0 to 9 years old, 3.28 per 100,000 population. The rate nearly doubled, to 6.29 per 100,000 population, for children aged 1 to 4, also the highest in the United States The number of children under 5 lost each year to drowning in Florida ( 67 in 2017, 74 in 2018, 50 in 2019) would fill three or four preschool classes.

“Swimming is not just another sport. Swimming is a lifesaving tool,” said Bell. “We are giving our time because we want to keep children from drowning. Ultimately, we want to create swimming leagues and make inner city areas compete.”

Kindley says he would love to be there for these future races. The former Georgia star from Jacksonville says it’s a no-brainer for him to be causing a stir in both his Florida communities, including his hometown where he hosted a youth football camp last month.

Later this month, Kindley will travel to training camp for the Dolphins to begin field competition with veteran Jesse Davis for the starting left goalie. But he has a swimming competition in mind that he recently lost to son Bell, who beat him in a race on day one of the swim program.

Kindley boasts of having smoked several Dolphins teammates in pool races, players such as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, guard Robert Hunt and offensive tackles Austin Jackson and Jonathan Hubbard, but he may have found one. new rival.

“I’m going to train and I’m coming for him,” Kindley said with a smile. “I swim really fast like a fish, but I can admit it when I get beaten.”