With the start of Spring season of sports beginning and the weather finally getting warmer, Swim is starting its long season of pushing to compete well in League play and hopefully compete in the California Interscholastic Federation League (CIF).
Unlike many sports where athletes compete against each other in a match, swimming is set in a format where athletes will compete in many different events with the goal of finishing in a high placement in order to score points. After all the races are over and the points are tallied, the school with the most points at the end of the meet wins.
Currently, the swim team is having to go up against tough opponents, including San Clemente High School, Beckman High School, Capistrano Valley High School, as well as the first league meet against Tesoro High School on Mar. 24. However, the coaches for both the boys and girls swim team are confident and have faith in their teams’ performance during this season.
When asked about this season, Coach Puffer, the head coach of the Boys Swim team, said, “Our goals this season, as always, are to win a league championship and to have each one of my swimmers improve this season and get faster times.”
The training both the boys and girls go through for swim is rigorous and exhausting, with the boys having to complete many of their swim sets in short bursts with little rest, and the girls having to complete long, physically and mentally straining swim sets that prepare both of them for the many upcoming swim meets that the teams will compete in.
The coaches are not the only ones who see potential in their athletes but the players themselves like one of the boys varsity team captains, Yorgos Lepe (12), who said, “My goals with season would have to dropping a lot of my times this season through a combination of trying my hardest in any of the sets I’m given and improving my strength while in the weight room.”
Swimming, while seeming like an easy sport to some viewers, can be considered one of, if not the hardest, sports to compete in due to the constant physical and mental strain the athletes have to face. Some examples include the constant risks of injury in mostly the shoulders and joints, while also dealing with the lack of oxygen that other sports have as a necessity.
To remedy many of the risks that these athletes face, an emphasis on keeping a healthy body is a necessity. Through a balanced diet of a lot of potassium and carbohydrates to prevent cramping, stretching to prevent excessive strain on joints and tendons, as well as weight lifting to strengthen the athletes’ muscles to prevent stress on the body.
The swim team still has a long season ahead of them, with them aspiring to reach many of their goals this season while avoiding and challenging many of the obstacles that they face as a team instead of as individuals within the sport of swimming during this season.
