Bonding Through the Waves

Team bonding in unique ways on the boys swim team

Chase Redington

The boys swim a specific amount of laps and yardage every practice together as a team.

The boys swim team is a team full of guys whose social lives mainly consist of each other. The boys practice together five days a week for more than two hours each practice so it’s not a surprise the guys have gotten so close. They spend nearly every night together because their practices are from eight to ten at night, so most of the time they can’t spend their nights out with other people. When the boys aren’t practicing or swimming at a meet they like to have team bonding parties, or “pasta parties.”

“We all get together and just eat food and hangout. Sometimes we’ll go play sand volleyball or ultimate frisbee,” senior Adam Decker said. 

The team as a whole have gotten pretty close over the years with countless hours spent with each other. The ‘pasta parties’ are held mostly in order to improve team morale and to insure that the team gets closer as a whole. What also helps the guys get so close is how they tend to support and cheer each other on during meets. Supporting each other is something that the swim team takes pride in and tries to actively pursue. 

“When one of us gets up to cheer on a teammate, all of us get up. So we all stay elevated and feed off of each other’s excitement,” senior Tristan Wren said.

As the years go on the returning boys continue to get closer, but getting the freshmen to get involved as well is another story. As the freshmen come into the group of already close guys, they can tend to be shy, but the farther into the season they get, the more relaxed the freshmen get.

“Once they start getting comfortable everybody starts to have a good time and we start to mess around, but can also be serious,” senior Andrew Lippincott said. 

 The closer the guys get, the more the team starts to act like a well-oiled machine. With many meets and team bonding activities done and on the way the team is starting to get closer than ever.