Swim Team: New Coach, New Year, New Excitement

In winter, the air turns colder and the days become shorter. But the St. Joseph’s Academy swimmers are not afraid of winter;  in fact, winter is their favorite time of the year!

St. Joe’s swimming and diving program has always been focused on doing everything as a team, whether that be winning, losing, or simply having fun.

This off season, the team experienced a huge loss: the retirement of Khannie Datsgah, their coach of 17 years. Comforting one another on the team, the St. Joe swimmers remained hopeful and excited for the season to come.

Fortunately, the team experienced a huge win as well, picking up as swimmers stated an “amazing” new coach! With so much to look forward to, the swim team could barely contain their excitement for the impending season.

Though the 2017-2018 St. Joe swim season brought lots of joy and fun, the veteran swimmers could not be more terrified for the worst week of the season: tryout week.

Junior Maddie Hernandez explains that “tryout week consists of difficult practices and ends with time trials to get an idea of everyone’s swimming ability.”

Now,  the team is well into the season and has a good idea about its new coach.

“She pushes hard, runs tough practices, and is dedicated to helping better the team,” Maddie said.

Seniors on the swim team are looking forward to spending their last season with their awesome teammates and winning many (if not all!) of their meets. Underclassmen swimmers are hoping to accomplish their best times and bond with the upperclassmen.

The swim team seems to be looking good and the dive team looks to be the strongest it has been in a while. With the rest of their season still awaiting them, the St. Joe swim team hopes to take advantage of their time together and is excited for what their season has in store!