After averaging around thirty girls on the swim and dive team, the number has dwindled to twenty. According to Coach Braswell, however, although the numbers are small, the team is mighty. “The girls are working really hard to get ready for the season,” Coach Braswell said.

The returning girls are more than willing to help out the new swimmers, which helps create a strong relationship between all the swimmers. Senior Kalista Roades is one of them. She offered advice to her new teammates: “Come in expecting the first two to three weeks to be tough because swimming is a full body sport and a lot of people don’t realize that.”

Roades encourages them to continue, however. “If you are ready for it and are willing to work through it, after your first month you’ll realize that you are so much better than when you started.”

As an experienced swimmer, Roades explained that getting used to the sport takes some time. “My sophomore year, I was just really overworked and super stressed out, so this year I’m trying to focus on balancing sports and school and actually being able to enjoy the sport.”

Roades hopes to match her time from her best year. “If I get back to my sophomore time, then I will be happy because I didn’t swim my junior year so I’ve had around two years off of swimming,” Roades said.

With 15 meets until Conferences, the team has plenty of time to condition and learn how best to help each other. Coach Braswell said that swimmers will be fine if they “swim their own race and not worry about the other swimmers.”