SWIMMING TILL THE END

Our swimmers have been hard at work all season, with little acknowledgement. The CCA girls swim team currently has practices held at the Williamsburg High School, as it is one of the nearest available facilities. The Williamsburg and CCA swimmers merge together as one team and see each other as a family. While Williamsburg might be considered a “rival” of CCA, the Williamsburg members are accepting and view the team as one group, unaffected by what school they attend. Williamsburg also chooses to include all swimmers in their homecoming parade, further strengthening their bond as a team. 

Even with all the support, practicing at Williamsburg has presented many challenges for our swimmers. Williamsburg is about twenty-five miles away from Tiffin, so athletes rely on a swim bus to get to and from the school. Multiple athletes have mentioned how the drive has changed their daily routine, as they do not have properly communicated bussing, occasionally causing them to get back home around seven thirty, while practice ends at six thirty. Some of the older swimmers have access to school permits, making it easier for them to get home sooner, but still athletes struggle in having to get to bed later. 

Recent reports of a new sports complex being built here in Tiffin have been circulating, however, it is unsure when construction will start or if it will even have a pool. A recent news article from thegazette.com states, “One of the biggest wants of school leaders is an indoor athletic facility where band and athletics including soccer, football and baseball and softball could practice in inclement weather.

MACHAELA KARAGOGOVA AND JORDAN HUNT POSING AS SWIMMERS; PHOTO BY KALLI YORK

Other possible projects under a capital campaign could be tennis courts, a swimming pool, expanding the weight room at the high school and upgrading the new baseball and softball fields to include artificial turf that would cut down on maintenance costs and mean fewer weather-related delays on game days.”(King)

As a past swimmer myself, adding a pool within a closer vicinity to the school would make commuting and practices easier. Athletes could still get bussed if they don’t have any other transportation, but the ride would be much shorter for them. If this were to happen, CCA would most likely become its own team, no longer associating with Williamsburg. This year there are thirteen CCA swimmers, and twenty-one Williamsburg swimmers. It would definitely be possible for CCA to become its own separate team, and Williamsburg would still have a decently sized team. CCA actually does have its own middle school team, and they are currently practicing at Amana Elementary school’s pool facility. While this facility works, it isn’t convenient. The pool only measures 20 yards, and has very limited space for parents to come and watch during the meets. The facility is also about twenty miles away, making it just as inconvenient as Williamsburg. Yet, they still keep swimming on. Several of the high school swimmers this year actually participated in middle school swimming, coached by Kari Bullis. 

As someone who went from middle school to high school level swimming, it's quite an intense change. The first official practice started August twelfth, not including swim camps which many of the swimmers attend. They have daily practices and meets about twice a week. Regionals, which is the state qualifying meet, takes place November eleventh with state being November fifteenth and sixteenth. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, practice starts at four, and ends at six thirty. On Wednesdays and Fridays practice goes till five forty five, giving the swimmers a bit of a break, and a well earned one. Competitive pools are normally measured in yards, and occasionally measured in meters. The average competitive pool measures twenty five yards, including the Williamsburg pool. Some of the swimmers were kind enough to provide me with their pre-meet warm ups. The swimmers start with a two hundred yard swim, which would be down and back four times. They then repeat this with just kicking, using kickboards to hold themselves up. They then swim three hundred fifty yards broken up. To put that into perspective, it takes the average swimmer between thirty to thirty five seconds to swim fifty yards going full speed. So imagine swimming eleven laps (one lap is down and back) with little breaks and trying to keep a consistent pace. 

Swimming is a three month long dedication and yet many of these girls continue to swim all four years of high school. Swimming is a full body workout, and with daily practices taking up most of their free time, it truly isn’t an easy task. Show support to a swimmer by coming to a meet, wishing them luck before they swim, or even getting them a pre-practice snack.