The 2022-23 Swim Season

According to Charles Scribner, the head coach for the HHS swim team, each season has its own unique challenges, and the swim team has faced many different obstacles so far this season. 

Physical renovations to the 16th street YMCA, the original Y, began at the end of August, however, renovations to the pool won’t begin until after the swim season in order for the swim team to still have a pool during this year’s swim season. Another one of the main differences to the swim team this year is the number of swimmers that are on the team. The number of swimmers is lower than the number of swimmers the team has had in recent years, but a majority of the decrease in numbers is on the JV side of the team with Varsity only losing one senior last year.

“My first two years swimming sophomore and freshman year we had a lot of people, but this year we have about half the people we had last year, so we don’t have a lot of people going out, which means our numbers to me are pretty low, but we’re keeping up pretty well,” Isabelle Cerveny, a junior for the girls varsity team, said.

Along with the low amount of swimmers, the pool temperatures have also been low during the first two weeks of practice due to the pool water heater breaking and cold air getting into the pool.

“In the beginning of the season, it was a big inconvenience because the doors would be open all the time and the cold air would be getting in. The pool temps dropped like a rock, and practice felt like survival because it was just so cold,” Cerveny said.

The lowest temperature the pool reached during the two weeks was in the low 70s, so the team had to make adjustments to make sure the swimmers didn’t get too cold in the water.

“We had to make some adjustments to practice: keeping the kids moving more, less breaks, getting them out of the water once they started to get too cold. But thankfully it was early in the season so it was easier to make those adjustments and not have as long of practices and not have to worry about it,” Scribner said.

Another big difference between the season this year and past seasons is that the boy’s and girl’s locker rooms are being renovated with the rest of the Y, so the team has had to adjust to using two family bathrooms and two temporary changing areas set up in the area between the doors to the boy’s and girl’s locker rooms. The team has adapted to changing into their swimsuits before they come to practice as well as going home to shower in between morning practices and school and showering at home after evening practices. 

“It’s definitely decreased the bonding time that we get. We usually shower after practice in the locker rooms and we change and talk a lot and that’s a really good bonding opportunity. We get a lot more of an opportunity to talk and have fun instead of being business and doing our best in the pool. We get a little bit more time to socialize and get to know our teammates,” Ochsner said.

Hastings High School has hosted two meets so far this year: a dual against Lincoln Northwest, the new high school recently built in Lincoln that joined the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference, and a large meet with multiple other teams and an estimated 100 swimmers. When HHS hosts home meets, the other teams use the 18th street, or the new Y locker rooms before they come to the pool, and their buses park along the street in between the 16th street Y and the bowling alley which leaves the first two rows of the bowling alley for HHS swimmers. Spectators can park in the new Y parking lot, however, spectators were only allowed for the meet against Lincoln Northwest since the pool isn’t big enough to fit all the swimmers and spectators in meets that include multiple other teams. 

“I’d say the home meets and swimming here in general have gone by pretty smoothly besides the fact that we can’t have spectators with a lot of schools here, we could with a duel because there’s not a lot of people,” Cerveny said.

The front parking lot of the 16th street YMCA is part of the construction for the Y renovation, so the swim team parks in the first two rows of the bowling alley, and any extra cars after the first two rows of the bowling alley have been filled park along the street to leave the rest of the parking lot for the bowling team and anyone else using the bowling alley.

“Parking for me is the worst part because you have to walk far when you’re cold and wet or when it’s cold outside and you’re wet. You have to walk farther to get your car instead of it being a little closer if you came out of the front of the Y,” Ochsner said.

The swim team is known as the HHS Swim Team this year, instead of HHS Swim and Dive, due to the old HHS diving coach moving and the team not being able to find a diving coach before the start of the swim season. The team is still looking for a coach for the 2023-2024 season.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll have a diving team again. I’m not comfortable coaching… so until we can find someone that is able to coach diving we won’t have it, but if we can find someone that is willing to do it and can do it we’ll have it again,” Scribner said.

Some swim meets include diving instead of only individual and relay swimming events. In these meets, the total points from diving are combined with the total points from the swimming events to determine the team scores for the meet on the boys and girls side separately. Since HHS doesn’t have any divers, the swim team doesn’t receive any points for the diving part of these meets.

“We’ve missed some points not having diving for the McCook invite. We were able to overcome that and still win that meet on the girls’ side. The other night at Beatrice we didn’t have diving and we ended up losing the meet by two points, so it did affect us there, but overall we’ve been able to overcome not having diving. It’s not ideal, but there’s no way around it,” Scribner said.

Once the high school swim season ends at the end of February, the renovations to the pool will begin. 

“It’ll be really nice to have a pool that is new and has consistent temperatures and no problems,” Ochsner said. “It’s just really exciting to think about having a new nice pool.”

One thing that many swimmers are hoping for with the new renovations is better starting blocks for the pool. Starting blocks are the square platforms in front of every lane of a pool that swimmers stand on and dive into the water from at the beginning of their races. If swimmers slip when pushing off from the blocks, it can ruin their race, especially in short-distance sprint events like the 50 freestyle.

“My favorite part that I’m looking forward to the most is having new blocks. The blocks right now are inconsistent, old and very slippery which causes problems and concerns when you’re trying to swim. Having better blocks with handlebars and just a good quality block helps you have a better start which can impact your time by a lot. I’m excited to practice on nice blocks so that I have some experience when we go to pools like Kearney or state at the Bob Devaney Center,” Ochsner said.

Besides all of the new renovations and changes, the team has also made many different memories so far this season. The memory from this season that stands out to Scribner is when a few relays swam times that qualified the relays to swim at state.

“I think the excitement the kids get when we made the relays we knew we were going to struggle to make and the surprise on their face when it happened and just the thrill they get from when they do well,” Scribner said.

Even though the team has made lots of memories so far this year, the season isn’t over yet, and many members of the swim team are looking forward to what’s to come throughout the remainder of the season.

“I’m just excited with how well everybody’s swimming and can’t wait to get to the point of the season where we start resting and get to the conference championship meets and put together our best performances at the end of the year when it counts,” Schribner said.