The Swim Team Rundown

The swim team is a sports team full of strong athletes and even stronger bonds, and their atmosphere has had decades to take the shape it has today. The swim team originally swam at the old YMCA’s four-lane pool. In 1979, after the community pool was built next to South Albany High School, the team switched over to the new pool. Alongside the long life of the swim team, their coaches, Babette Romancier, Bailey Dickerson, and Athena Lawson, may have lasted longer than any other coach at West. Romancier, almost strictly referred to as “Babs” by her athletes, has been coaching the team for the past 16 years. This will be the 16th and final year Romancier coaches the swim team, as she intends to retire at the end of the season. But from Romancier’s retirement, Bailey Dickerson will take over as head coach starting next year. Dickerson has been helping coach the swim team for three years and is a graduate from West Albany who swam all four years. From the position of a spectator, swimming is fairly uncomplicated, but the simplicity of racing does not undermine how exciting it can be to watch. Sometimes first place at a state meet can be determined by a thousandth of a second. “At state my sophomore year, I got second place by 0.02 seconds… It’s very frustrating. I had been ahead, but he barely finished before me,” senior Luke Milburn said. There are eight individual events, then three relays that each swimmer can participate in. At every meet, each swimmer is allowed a maximum of two events: two individual events, or one individual and one relay. Each event requires hours of practice and dedication to reach a competitive level, with barriers in the way of consistent progress. “We swim for two hours straight, and if they can’t continue swimming that entire time, they can’t get the technique work,” Dickerson said. “It’s a lot of fine tuning… You have to watch them and pick apart little details.” “Their [practices] sometimes really terrible and really bad, but we just get through it together. Like, there’s one set that we do that is four or five thousand yards of just straight butterfly stroke,” junior Alice Whiteside said. “Kids will come back [after they graduate] and say, ‘Thank you. I feel like you really cared,’” Romancier said. The swim team has a powerful atmosphere full of support. “I hope that swimmers leave the program better than when they started… not as swimmers, but as a better person, a better teammate, a better perspective of themselves, or even confidence.” Swimming is a hard sport that can be very grueling at times. However, the teammates and coaches of the swim team strive to create a strong space that works for each other to better themselves as a whole.

“IT’S A LOT OF FINE TUNING... YOU HAVE TO “ WATCH THEM AND PICK APART LITTLE DETAILS.”

LONG-TIME COACH DESCRIBES HOW SUPPORTIVE ATMOSPHERE WAS DEVELOPED

By Joe Wagner

Sophomore Ella Winter swims at the South Albany vs. West Albany Duel on Jan. 4. Sophomore Conner Dickerson swims at the South Albany vs West Albany Duel on Jan. 4.