With fall sports finally coming to an end, the shift to winter sports is coming up prominently. Athletics like hockey, basketball, and wrestling seem to be taking over Liberty with their popularity and they are usually able to attract a large crowd to their events. One sport that usually gets overlooked that I would like to hone in on is Swim and Dive. I sat down with one of the head captains on the Swim team, Senior Taylor McCoppin and asked her questions about the upcoming season. McCoppin has been swimming all four years of high school and is one of four senior captains on the team. 

Swimming is an extremely endurance focused sport, similar to something like running. Preseason is a really important part of the season for the athletes, because it not only lets them bond with their teammates, but it builds that base amount of stamina that the swimmers use to train speed later in the season. “Preseason focuses a lot on getting into the routine of high school swimming, most of our team also swim club in the offseason so it’s sort of a transition period for everyone.” McCoppin says. Preseason heavily focuses on the transition between middle school and high school seasons for the freshman who may have never experienced being on a real high school team, or team bonding between the new set of teammates.

While talking to her about her personal goals, we briefly discussed her goals for the team. “I think the biggest goals for the team this season are to get as far as we can post season and have as many athletes as possible qualify for districts and states,” She says “You’re racing yourself and the clock, so if in the post-season you can beat pre-season you then you’ve had a successful season”. 

Although swimming seems to be an individualized sport, the team culture itself really makes it for the athletes. Some ways they get excited is looking forward to certain meets. When I asked McCoppin about it, she had one definitive answer; which was the All-Olentangy meet. The All-Olentangy meet is located at the Delaware YMCA and not only includes all of the olentangy schools in a head to head standoff, but it also “Is an alumni night for alumni to come and actually swim events or just to hangout”. The team culture of this team clearly runs deep, so much so that the alumni are able to come back and visit their old friends or create bonds with the newer generation of athletes. This environment is created, thanks to the team captains.

“As a captain I have a lot of responsibility to create an environment that is fun and inclusive”, McCoppin said “I want to be able to leave the team in the best version of itself”