The swim team was shocked at the end of last year when they learned that their coach would be changing.
“I was upset when I found out,” says junior Mckenzie Green, a returning swimmer.
At the beginning of this year, the school’s swim coach of four years was replaced by Mary Ward, who was the team’s coach before.
Ward, who has been the coach at Granger for the past few years, is happy to be back. “T-Ville feels like my home,” said Ward.
Taylorsville is where Ward first became a coach. Ward’s proud of what she did at Granger, she built the team of four to forty. Her favorite part of coaching is seeing kids exceed their own expectations. She’s excited to see what the team can do.
Swimmers are hopeful for the new season as well, “I think that it will go good, we have a lot bigger team than last year,” says junior Kade Chamberlain, a returning swimmer.
Larger numbers are better on a swim team because points are awarded based on how they place in the meet. “Bigger is better,” says Green, “[People] need to join swim even if they can’t [swim]…we need to win more than just two meets.”
Anyone can join the swim team, from swimmers going for state to people who are scared to put their faces in the water.
Swimmers personally compete to win points for the team, which allows swimmers to set personal goals and these can be quite varied. “I want to get my 50 free under 30 seconds and my 500 under seven minutes,” said Green, which will qualify her for girl’s varsity. The qualifications for boys varsity are different.
Jade Thompson, also a returning junior swimmer, said she’s excited to get to closer to the team. Last year she loved how the team became like a family. Besides coming closer to other swimmers Thompson wants to lower her butterfly time, which many consider to be the hardest stroke.
Chamberlain said his goal was, “to do every event once.” At swim meets there are 11 events ranging from relays to solos, sprints to long distance and utilize the four strokes: butterfly, freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke.
Coach Ward has her own goals for the team,“I would love to get some kids to state… and of course, beat Granger.”