Leesville High School’s 2015-2016 girl’s swim team blew the other Cap 8 teams out of the water on January 30th. The girls team added another notch to their belt naming them champions for four years in a row.
Not many people know of the team’s accomplishment of winning first by a solid 376 points above the second place team.
“Any sport that doesn’t participate or have their events on campus is tough to publicize and get out to the public, to the school, and to the students… and with the success that we’ve had, we should be more recognized” said Jack Rogers.
Like most teams, the swim team wears their spirit wear and dresses up hoping to receive the occasional question — “What’s going on?” The swimmers become human billboards since announcements for their meets are no longer posted.
Swim teams stats are nothing to over look. The female swimmers have won all of their meets except for a second place loss by four points leaving them 3-1. After competing in Cap 8, the team can add their four-peat victory to their list of achievements.
“We have a great team again this year, but eight teams competing… is different than going up against one team in [a normal] Cap 8 [situation]. I believe if we went up against each individual team in Cap 8 head to head I think we would beat each team very easily, but when you put eight teams together in one meet all it takes is a team, maybe at the bottom of the conference, to have three good kids that steal points from other teams — including leesville — which could cause a sway in the place finishings. You are confident going in, but, a little bit cautious,’’ said Rogers before Cap 8. Clearly enthusiastic about the outcome, Rogers now has to worry about the up and coming regionals.
To prepare for Cap 8, the swim team has met every morning from 5:30- 6:30 a.m. Most swimmers wake up at 4:15-4:30 depending on the commute. Practices will continue for the swimmers that achieved qualifying times for regionals, the season has been extended for the few.
“Practice in the morning shows a level of commitment and a level of intrinsic motivation,” said Rogers. After practice — if athletes want a chance to eat and get to school on time — have to shower using ice cold water and get dressed in 10-15 min.
Like most of the athletes who fell in love with the sport, so did Rogers, “I love the swim team. I took over the responsibility last year because we couldn’t find a coach and figured I would do it for a year…but I absolutely fell in love with the sport and the kids. I can see myself doing this for years.”
After accomplishing their goal of a four-peat, the team is given the confidence to go into regionals strong and come out with yet another victory for the Leesville swim team.
