On Monday, November 6th the STA swim team held their tryouts at Longview Community College. The team has welcomed new coach and STA alumna Bridget Kelly. The team also has seen an influx of many newcomers to the pool and previous swimmers, including sophomore Sophie Sweeny. Sweeny was on the team last year and swam before attending high school.

“I started [swim] when I was about eight or nine years old,” Sweeny said. “I just fell in love with it since then.”

With Kelly as the new coach, she has earned much praise from Sweeny, due to her personality and her coaching.

“Bridget is very organized and nice,” Sweeny said. It’s very different having a girl teach us because it’s more fun, and we get to know her on a more personal level.”

Kelly worked the swimmers very hard at tryouts by having them do many laps and expecting a lot from her team.

“She expects 110 percent,” Sweeny said. “As long as you put forth the effort, you’ll be respected by the coaches and swimmers.”

During tryouts, the swimmers did many laps in the pool and a lot of long distance.

“[During tryouts] we did eight 50s in under one minute which is extremely hard,” Sweeny said. “Then the next day we did three 300s in laps which add up to 900 meters.”

Swimming isn’t one of the most popular sports at STA, but this year tryouts saw many more girls than the previous years.