Swim spotlight

There are two people in this world, those who know how to swim and those who pretend that they know how to swim. This is a very interesting sport, it is also the most utilized and beneficial outside of the pool. For example swimmers at Rancho have had the opportunity to save people’s lives as lifeguards for summer jobs. Junior Abraham Orosco who is an experienced swimmer said ,“It’s great that I already have a job and it involves swimming, I get around 12 bucks an hour.”

Tossing all that aside, being a part of the swim team isn’t easy, you must have mental toughness, these swimmers endure physical pain swimming back and forth while taking short breaths in between every stroke. In short, you must be as tough as a shark and quick as a dolphin as the swimmers say. What Coach Lissa Fukuda looks in for in swimmers is hard work and determination in the water. Now you don’t have to be a pisces per se to be a great swimmer, players just need to be actively participant and dedicated to the craft.

A common day at practice consists of everyone’s favorite type of training, conditioning. The swimmers then dress into their attire and prepare to take a deep dive in the pool located at Dominguez Park. Shortly after the swimmers perform various drills and activities that are focused mainly on different styles of strokes and freestyles. To put perspective inside the mind of a swimmer, Abraham’s favorite activity is water polo (which the team occasionally plays as a form of exercise) whereas kicking drills are one of his least favorite activities to carry out. Since swim is calorie draining swimmers must consume a surplus of calories to make up for the amount lost while practicing and they do it to gain lean muscle mass to withstand the explosive display of strength in the water.

As for the meets, a typical meet consists of a bright cloudless day in warm water where there is both a sense of eagerness and nervousness. However, this recent weather in the Los Angeles County turned the typical into the untypical as there have been cold cloudy days during these meets and practice. Let’s just hope the swimmers don’t get wet from the rain. During the said meets there isn’t an extremely large turn out of fans from Rancho as compared to other popular sports like football. So insead, the swimmers pass their time socializing with the different swimmers from other schools. What comes after is a somewhat long bus ride back home.

Sky Rogers has swam before and stated, “my best and fastest time time is 38.64 seconds. This is only possible with my teammates who provide emotional support during tough practices and from the advice I get from the coaches.”

All in all, swim offers a unique style of comradery in a different setting from which most people are not used to, the water. Despite the resulting dry hair and sunburns that derive from swim, the overall level experience and bonding moments is what rewards most of the athletes.