by Caroline Polen

At Bellbrook High School the Swim team, coached by Rob Johnson and Karen Hullett, is usually a pretty large team. However, the numbers got noticeably lower this year. 

“We had 22 seniors last year and they were a very big part of the team so going into it this year the culture was automatically different,” Evi Fromm, senior at Bellbrook high school, said. “I think a lot of people just realized we didn’t have very many friends left on the team because it had gotten so small.” 

For the people who have decided not to come back to swim this year, their reasons vary.

“I have asthma and knee issues,” Fromm said, “It was taking a lot of strain on my body,” 

 “Coming into this year, I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress with school and everything else that comes with senior year,” Claire Cutting, senior at Bellbrook high school, said. “The swim schedule is a mentally taxing one, with lifting as early as 6 am and practices going until 10:30 pm. I just decided that for my mental health, swim wasn’t going to work for me.”

The numbers were predicted to be the same as usual this year. 

“They had over 50 people registered the week before practices started,” Fromm said. “The first Wednesday practice, there were only 21 people there.”

While the swim team numbers have decreased, the dive team numbers at practices have been increasing. “Our dive coach is coaching both Bellbrook Dive and Oakwood Dive because [Oakwood] didn’t have a coach,” Fromm said. “So that means we have really high numbers this year. We’ve had to split practices up because if we have 14 people at practice we’re not going to get to go off the board more than 10 times.”

While the swim team numbers have dropped, previous team members still support and recommend the sport.

“I’ll still be coming to meets though and cheer for my teammates,” Cutting said. “Swim is a really great sport, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a way to stay in shape and have a good time.”