Finishing with a record of 4-6, the Pirates swim team faced its fair share of challenges this past winter season.

One prominent issue was injuries and sickness. Additionally, compared to last season, there were more new swimmers and underclassmen on the team resulting in a lack of experience on the team.

“There were a lot of new people this year. We luckily had a large group of freshmen join the team this year, which was much needed because we have really shrunk over the past couple of years,” senior Brett Hess said. “For example, we only had two seniors and two sophomores on the team.”

Senior captains Sophia Rocks and Brett Hess both explained how, even though this season had its challenges and was different from other seasons, they still made sure they were there for all of their teammates. 

“Being a captain to me means being a leader to the other swimmers and being there for them whenever they need,” Rocks said.

As a rebuilding season, the team’s goals included improving individually and building camaraderie. Despite the difficulties that came along with the season, head coach Collin Canfield said he is excited for what is to come for the team. 

“My favorite thing is watching the swimmers become better versions of themselves. Whether it’s at the end of a practice or a race, and they realize that they have pushed themselves beyond what they thought their limitations were, and then they start to build their confidence and realize that they are capable of doing incredibly difficult things,” Canfield said.

As experienced swimmers, Rocks and Hess said their goals for the season were to drop times and try out new events. 

“This year I was really focusing on working on my backstroke after being forced to swim backstroke a lot during my summer swim season at Pheasant Run. I stuck with it and was able to drop a couple seconds in both my 100 and 50-yard backstroke,” Hess said.

While everyone sports each other as a team, each swimmer is also looking to accomplish their own personal goals. 

“My biggest accomplishment was being able to get third in the 400 freestyle relay at our senior meet this year[…] And this was a close race where I only beat the other person by less than a second in a close race,” Hess said.

While Delran is typically a rival of the Pirates, in the pool it is a more friendly competition due to shared connections.

“I think Delran is an obvious one, we always wanna do our best against them naturally, but the interesting thing is we are very friendly with Delran because a lot of our swimmers and Delran swimmers all swim together at Pomona in the summer time. So everybody’s teammates. Also the coach of Delran is one of Pomona, so it’s a very friendly rivalry,” Canfield said. “There are no hard feelings or bad blood between the two teams.”

Although there were some learning curves this season, the team strengthened its bond and helped one another in pursuit of their personal and team goals.