Practice starts next week for the Wrangell High School swim team, which had its season cut short last year by pandemic restrictions. After a month of five-day-a-week practice, the team’s first swim meet is tentatively planned for the first weekend of September, in Ketchikan.
And although the team has put 13 or 14 swimmers into the pool in past years, “this year I might have only eight swimmers,” said coach Jamie Roberts.
Fewer students this coming school year is part of the reason, Roberts said. In addition, some swimmers also compete in cross country, which will run at the same time as the swim season, pushing students to choose one or the other sport.
Roberts would like to put at least four boys and four girls into the pool, so that the Wrangell team could compete in four-person relays. But if there are not enough swimmers, team members can still compete in individual events, the coach said.
Roberts has coached the school swim club for about a decade and has been the high school team coach since 2018, but this is the first year she will be paid by the district for her coaching work. The three-year contract between the Wrangell School District and the teachers union, which took effect July 1, now includes a swim team coach on the list of paid extracurricular staff.
All of this year’s swim meets with be held out of town — Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka and Juneau.
Wrangell cannot put on a swim meet because it lacks officials, starting blocks for the races, electronic touch pads and the rest of the automated scoring system needed for races, Roberts said.
The community pool has one starting block, but it would need enough for five lanes, and they cost about $4,000 each, she said.
Wrangell also does not have a competition diving board. Swim and diving meets are held jointly, limiting the sites to schools that can handle both.
Under a tentative schedule, regionals would be held in Ketchikan the last weekend of October, with the state swim meet in Juneau the first weekend of November.
Most of Wrangell’s swim competition last year was virtual, due to COVID-19 travel and social distancing restrictions, with the team racing in its home pool and sending in times to measure against other participating schools.
The season ended early last fall when the borough ordered the pool closed, in response to rising COVID-19 case counts in the community. Wrangell was unable to compete in regionals, and the state tournament was canceled.
While the swim team is limited to high school students, Roberts said the district’s swim club is open to youth ages 5 to 18. The swim club runs longer, extending past the end-of-season state tournament for the team, giving youth more time in the pool.
The swim club usually attracts about 40 participants, she said.
Reader Comments(0)