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Team practices at Pioneer 4 days a week while home pool gets renovated
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Everything is a road trip for the Rochester swimming team this year.
All the meets are on the road. So are the practices.
That is because the pool at Rochester Middle School is closed for renovations this year.
Practices are being held at Pioneer High School on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, according to coach Stephanie Brown.
Practices are from 5-7 p.m. unless Pioneer has a home meet and Rochester does not. Then, practices at Pioneer start right after school.
The team stays at home on Wednesdays and does weight training and cardio work on the exercise bikes and the elliptical machines. The team also lifts weights on Monday mornings.
Friday practices are held at the Rochester Middle School gym. In previous years, the Friday practice routine was the Saturday practice routine, but they made the change in order to gain access to the Pioneer pool.
“We just have to shift some things around,” Brown said. “Wednesdays we don’t travel, and Fridays we don’t travel.”
All 16 meets are on the road, including traditional invitationals like the Goshen DecaDuals, the Warsaw Invitational and the Three Rivers Conference meet at Maconaquah.
“Everyone that joined the team knew what they were getting into,” Brown said. “So you know, I think if there was anyone that felt like that they couldn’t handle traveling for practice, they probably just didn’t come out for the team. And that’s OK.”
Brown chuckled when asked about how the swimmers have taken to the schedule.
“There’s always grumbling here and there,” Brown said. “They’re teenagers. They grumble about things. It’s just what they do. … Their moods are very fluctuating, so the grumbling comes, but it’s not extreme, and it’s not out of the norm of the amount of grumbling they would do about any given thing on a day.”
Twelve girls and five boys came out for swimming. In a meet at Lewis Cass on Dec. 2, Rochester did not have any boys divers or a boys 400 freestyle relay team.
“I’m hopeful that numbers will go back up next year,” Brown said. “We only have five boys. I think that not having a pool affected that. We ended up with more girls than I thought we’d end up with. So we’ve got 12. That’s a good number. You can pretty much fill a lineup with 12, assuming no one’s sick and assuming that everyone can swim all the strokes.”
Assistant coach Erica Abbott, a 2014 Rochester grad, roused some memories when she brought in her senior yearbook.
“In the 2014 season, we were undefeated that year, and she counted there were 32 girls on the team that year,” Brown said. “Like oh my goodness, that was so many (years ago). I don’t know how we did that.
“But just as always, I coach whoever’s here. I’m hopeful that next year being back at home and having a nice new pool will attract some people to come out that maybe wouldn’t be willing to try it, but not with the traveling aspect.”
Brown was asked what the renovated pool will look like next year.
“There will be added seating,” Brown said. “And then there will be some added benches. All of the equipment – I don’t know if it’s called HVAC – but all of the stuff that makes the pool run, the mechanics of it, is going to be new, and it’s going to be outside. So the part that you see them working on outside when you drive by is going to be where all the mechanics are. So all of that will be new. It was original to the building, and it was breaking all of the time.”
Brown also said the old equipment area will now be a storage room.
The ceiling also is being redone. She said there was a certain way ceilings at indoor pools looked back when the RMS pool was originally built that is now outdated.
“The ceiling will be open,” Brown said. “It will be rafters, like a gym. So part one of the issues – there were multiple issues – but one of the issues was that there was a drop ceiling, and so there was a gap between the ceiling and the roof, and in an environment where there’s that much moisture, that just lends itself to all kinds of things happening in this enclosed area. And so any pool that you see now renovated that was built around the same time as ours – the Pioneer pool, the (Tippecanoe) Valley pool – the ceiling is gone. Whoever had that idea when all these pools were built in I don’t know what year, but with the drop ceiling, every pool has had to do away with that, and you just have the gym ceiling type. So are those are the definites. We’ll where other things end up. But those were the big ones, so it will be nice.”
Ava Thomas is the lone senior girl, and Reece Johnson is the lone senior boy. Brown said that in lieu of a senior night home meet that Thomas and Johnson will be recognized at a home basketball game.
“They are going to have a senior banner, just like they always do,” Brown said. “We had Abbie Malchow Overmyer, she came to Pioneer and took them. So it was in a pool where everything’s black and yellow, so that was good that we were able to do that. It was at least our school colors. So those are just going to be hung in the athletic hallway, where the basketball and wrestling and all of those are going to be. So those will be on display in the athletic hallway, and we’ll recognize them at a basketball halftime. Haven’t figured out when. It’s on my list of things to do.”
Kylie Haselby
Haselby, a sophomore, is the only diver in the program. She has not dove in a meet yet this year.
“She dives some,” Brown said. “She has not had the opportunity to have a lot of diving practice. Her diving coach (Brynn Wilson) is not able to travel to Pioneer every day. She comes when she can. But Kylie hasn’t had enough dive practices to feel like she could compete, but Kylie’s getting stronger. Again, just like Brevin (Nicholson), she’s becoming more confident in what we’re doing. She’s being a good teammate. She’s doing well too.”
Brevin Nicholson
Nicholson is a sophomore who has emerged as one of the boys team leaders, according to Brown.
“Brevin has improved a lot since last year,” Brown said. “He’s got more confidence than he did last year. He’s got a year of experience under his belt. We’ve only got five boys, and two of them are new (Joshua Seuferer and Tanner Hamilton), so he’s really stepped up as a leader, and he’s kind of leading the other boys and how we do things, and he’s doing a great job with that, and he’s also improved as a swimmer as well.”
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