by Ashley Collingwood

    The Petaluma High School swim team competed and won against St. Vincent on  Thursday, March 25th at PHS.

    From this point on, the majority of the meets will be held at the Petaluma High School pool on Thursdays at 3:30pm. “It would be great if people want to come and cheer on the team. It’s really fun,” said swim coach Cynthia Leonard.

    The Petaluma High School swim team is quite a bit larger than most high school teams. Generally teams have about twenty to thirty members. The PHS team, however, has roughly sixty-five team members. The team appears to enjoy being part of such a large group as freshman Tom Franicevich said, “It’s like a bunch of friends hanging out and swimming. It’s new to me to be like, the champion freshman, but it’s a lot of fun.” Sophomore Zach Cipriano agrees, “It feels great to be a part of the team, and that’s all I have to say about that.”

    With such a large team one might worry that some players get lost in the crowd, but as freshman Alyssa Hegenbart said, “It really just has a good team feeling. The coaches give us all the same amount of attention. Kids don’t get shoved off to the side.”

    This year the swim team gained many new swimmers, which may contribute to its large size. Freshman Rachel Harris said, “It’s much easier in competition because you don’t have as much pressure put on you.”

    The general consensus among the team members is that the large group has a great deal of fun and continuously supports one another. Hegenbart said, “I think we have good team spirit. Swimming is one of the best sports to play because there isn’t much competition between the individual team members.” Sophomore Patrick Rabbitt stated, “We have a boatload of fun. No, we have a yatch-load of fun.”

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