Two whistles and the room goes silent. The swimmers step up onto the block, all eyes on them. “Take your mark.” The buzzer goes off. The room erupts with voices and the Goffstown High School swim team races to cheer on their teammates. The soaking deck is covered in adrenaline rushed swimmers and ecstatic coaches. Swim team season has just begun.
The Goffstown swim team is active during the winter sports season. The season starts in November and ends in February, after states. Qualifying for states is a common goal in swimming. Throughout the season swimmers work towards getting certain times that allow you to compete at states. The state meet has a total of eight events with about three or two heats in each event. The number of heats depends on the amount of swimmers competing in the event. The swimmer can only qualify for two events at states. On the high school swim team, the events are not separated by age, but by each swimmer’s individual time. The faster the swimmer is, the later the heat swimmer competes in. Due to the difficulty of making the cut times for states, qualifying is a huge accomplishment.
Freshman swimmer Alexis Allen stated, “I want to qualify for states,” after being asked what her goal for the season was. Allen is a freshman at GHS. She has been swimming since she was 9 years old. Many people on the GHS team have been swimming since a young age. Some join the swim team to stay fit for their main sport while others swim year-round with different teams or clubs.
Swimming can be a very difficult sport. Like many other sports, it involves dedication, practice multiple times a week, and persistence and hard work to improve as a swimmer.
When freshman swimmer Hailey Leung was asked what the hardest thing about swim team is, she said, “The hardest thing is motivation.” Continuing, she talked about how sometimes she doesn’t want to go to practice or meets but winning, getting personal bests, and spending time with swim friends makes it all worth it. Later adding, “My favorite thing about the swim team is the community.” Both Allen and Leung agree that the friendships created on the swim team are ones that they cherish.
Leung goes to John Stark High School unlike Allen who attends GHS, though they’re on the same team. During the swim season the two schools come together.
“John Stark and Goffstown swim teams practice together and go to meets together, but are scored separately,” Leung explains. The schools are both coached by Coach Jess, the head coach of the GHS swim team. Combining the two schools helps increase the number of swimmers on the team and is more efficient overall.
Swim team is a very competitive sport. Meets can be a mix of different emotions. Some moments are more nerve wracking, disappointing, or exciting than others, but overall are still enjoyable. Allen agrees but adds that they also are, “…supportive when we cheer for each other.”
