This year’s swim and dive team are looking forward to a strong season for this upcoming season. Teams practice before and after school everyday, and everyone on the team is in the 6th period swim and dive locker as well. Coaches make the locker class a requirement because it leads into after school practice and gives the athletes that much more time to train and focus on certain things.

“In practice we do a lot of hard sets and lots of yardage. We build off each other’s energy with teamwork,” said junior swimmer Reese Carpenter.

In past years, the swim and dive program have done increasingly better at meets. Both swim and dive broke multiple school records at state last season and got some of their best scores and averages. As the success rate of the teams grows, so does the number of those wishing to join the team.

“We’ve had some transfers from other schools that are going to help strengthen our girls’ side, and then this year’s boys are going to be very strong as well,” said swim coach Stephanie Carrasco.

Last year, the team’s season was cut short due to COVID and there were many restrictions regarding how they could compete and who could attend. One rule that was implemented last year to decrease the amount of people at the meets was that only one guest was allowed to come with each athlete which was difficult for athletes and parents to cope with. This year however, they are getting a full season and the meets are back to how they were pre-COVID.

“We’re all working really hard and just doing our best we can to get back in the groove of things, and just get as strong as we can before the season starts,” said swimmer Haley Mueller.

Both teams have always had strong athletes that are good individually, but having a good relationship with teammates is still very important, even if one is only competing individually. This year’s team’s ability to work together is one of the main reasons they expect to have a successful season. 

“I think our biggest strong suit is being able to work collectively and have a unifying feeling of being all together,” said Carpenter. “I think that we’re just very supportive of each other,” added junior teammate Deborah Abbott. 

The annual Red & Blue Meet was held for the teams on Aug 26 where seniors choose a color and “compete” as that team. The rest of the athletes get assigned colors and join the seniors in competing against each other to prepare for the season. The first official meet will be at home against Campo Verde.