Returning from triumph and success, the KSC Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive teams are prepared to begin the 25-26 campaign. The women’s team took home a conference championship last winter and both teams began the new season with their sights set on the same goal.
Both the men’s team and women’s team have brought a new set of captains in to lead the group for the season. The Owls now have four captains, two for each side opposed to the previous single captain arrangement. Head coach Christopher Woolridge spoke on the role of captainship for KSC Swim and Dive and how the new captainship has mixed with the team.
“The piece that I ask from them that’s probably the least comfortable piece is we ask them to be vocal leaders. We ask them to not only encourage people but to keep people [teammates] in check,” Woolridge said. “This year we ended up going with two captains because that’s what the team determined they needed. And none of them have been captains before.”
A big role for the swim and dive captains is to keep the team motivated and headstrong throughout the season. Last season, the women’s team won its third conference title in a row and its 20th of all time, so the motivation and need to win can be hard to garner. Junior captain Maddy Fitzgerald spoke on how the team’s past success is on its mind and how they deal with the looming pressure.
“We want to continue that legacy, but we want to start a new one where it’s not just you do your job and you win and there’s no kind of fun in it. We want to incorporate having a good time and being able to be proud of your swimming,” said Fitzgerald.
Woolridge also spoke on the team’s past success and how that affects his coaching, “We talk about winning, but we don’t necessarily talk about the continuation of winning. How a team’s going to come together is a little bit different every year.”
Heading into the new year, the team has also focused on the physical aspect, as athletes train before the season to be fully prepared for the road ahead. According to junior captain Alec Agosto, the team is more than prepared on the physical side and ready for competition.
“We just wanted to focus on team bonding and taking care of your bodies to have healthy bodies. Keeping an eye out for each other, making sure everybody is doing alright,” said Agosto.
While the captains have the influence and can manage the team, Woolridge is responsible for the captains and, therefore, can also influence and affect the team in large ways. Fitzgerald says that Woolridge has done an excellent job rallying the troops for the season.
“[Woolridge] has done a great job of finding ways to connect with each and every swimmer because every individual is coached differently, and he has done a good job of finding ways to motivate people,” said Fitzgerald.
When speaking on the team’s start to the season, Woolridge said, “We’re just getting into the competition season, so it’s a little hard to tell exactly what we’re going to get.”
The team’s second meet will take place on Saturday, Oct. 25, in the Spaulding Gymnasium Pool.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
This article was updated on October 24 to correct a misspelling of Maddy Fitzgerald’s name and an incorrect statement about the swim & dive championship results from last year.
