The boys swim team has been on a winning streak in recent years, with many strongly held records being shattered and relays achieving states.
This year the team hopes to continue the trend hoping to bring all three relays to states and qualify in several individual events. How has the swim team created this success, and how do they plan to push even further?
Training for the swim team consists of a lot of yardage, generally 5000 to 6000 yards of hard swimming every single day. This makes swimming a very mental sport, with a large emphasis placed on how to push through the monotonous sets every day.
“In order for our training program to work it takes a lot of discipline by the guys,” Coach Mark McFarland explained. “They have to get enough sleep, hydrate and eat a lot of food so they can come back and train hard the next day.”
Team dynamics play a big role in this process, pushing each of the swimmers both in and out of the water.
“Team unity is crucial to our individual success because in each lane the swimmers are pushing each other further,” says Deklan McCarthy, a captain of the swim team.
So how does the team go about forming this dedicated group of swimmers while balancing the influx of newcomers with the established members? A big part of that seems to come from the coach’s set selections which generally feature the same basic features with intervals and yardage changed to allow for flexibility within the team.
“In many cases I try to give the whole team similar training sets and then modify them to make sure each swimmer is getting the level of training they need to push them, but also not break their confidence,” says Coach McFarland
To aid in this effort, the team routinely has pasta parties before swim meets to prepare and team breakfasts in celebration of accomplishments. This has been a huge success as the team has recently achieved 5th place overall statewide according to Swimcloud.com and 3rd place in the recent Shen Invitational. Plans for the future of the team focus on once again winning the Falwell Cup at State qualifiers, getting all three relays to states, and have now set their sights on being the best in all of New York state.
Despite the level of achievement there is still competition, and the swimmers are ready to rise to the challenge.
“The most important thing for this group is to remember what it took to get here and not get complacent. We need to work harder than we did the last few years when we were trying to be the best,” says Coach McFarland.
Prospects for next year remain bright as the newer swimmers aspire to fill the role of the leaving upperclassmen.
“Although it will be hard for them to lose our six seniors this year, I’m confident that the underclassmen will be able to continue our winning culture, and if they stay motivated, they’ll be able to keep doing great things,.” says Troy Luley, a captain of the swim team.
