The swim team faces more problems than you think
In the 2017/2018 school year, the high school swim team consisted of 58 swimmers, a dramatic increase compared to the 25 students who had been on the team in the previous year. This year, the team grew even more with a total of 63 swimmers (not including the growing dive team).
With this increase in swimmers, there has also been an increase in issues the team faces. These growing pains have been one of the biggest problems for swimmers this year.
Sophomore swimmer Laine Palko said, “Bus rides are ridiculous, we are absolutely PACKED full and it is a huge safety concern.”
Is it a safety concern? Careful research proves that it very well may be.
An email was sent to Head of the Transportation Department Sal Arquilla asking, “What is the legal number of students allowed on one bus? What is the suggested number?”
Arquilla responded, “Our buses are 77 passenger vehicles but that is three to a seat and two to a seat would be 56 passengers. I cannot give you a suggested number because that would depend on number of passengers and the amount of equipment.”
Each swimmer has two bags, one for equipment (containing two paddles, a kickboard, a poolboy, and two flippers) and one for personal belongings (which may include a towel, swimsuit, extra clothes, etc.). The green equipment bag is usually shoved under the seat while each personal bag is placed in the passenger’s lap. Generally, two swimmers fit to one seat and if another tries to fit, they end up spilling into the aisle.
Since the bus can only fit 56 passengers fitting two to a seat, there has been some huge safety issues. Swimmers can often be found sitting in the aisles or leaning into them as they cannot fit three people and six bags into one seat. If the whole team shows up to practice (63 swimmers), seven people will not safely fit on the bus (63-56=7).
During swim meets, the team receives two busses (as adding eight divers would be an even bigger issue for the team). But adding busses is not cheap.
Arquilla continued, saying, “The cost of buses depend on the distance and time they are used. As an example, the two buses that went to Hiram for a meet on January 2nd costs about $158 each.”
The team goes to the pool five days a week, which would mean it would cost the school $790 to travel to Hiram College every week with two busses (the team also goes to Western Reserve Academy which is a shorter distance than Hiram College). There is also an expense of renting pool time slots added onto that ($50 for Hiram, $80 for WRA). The school also pays for extra JV events during meets, which each cost $3.00. Asking the school to pay for all of this would be unfeasible for a single sport budget.
Freshman swimmer Maeve Russell suggests, “The junior varsity swimmers practice three-four days a week and the varsity swimmers practice five-six days a week. It would allow the coaches to have more time to pay attention to each swimmer.”
This may solve some of the bus issue, but brings up another point of discussion.
The growth of the team lead to the need for more eyes on the swimmers. The Athletic Department hired Cassidy Powers as a second assistant coach. Head coach Amanda Marlow, also requested the athletic trainer, Tom Wymer, to attend lifting sessions.
“Of course it has been great having more coaches. More hands on deck, more people to go and listen to for advice,” says Marlow, “I think every coach would love to have more coaches and I would feel the same way, but you have to work with what we have.”
Powers and assistant coach, Amanda Knapp, share the assistant coach salary and each attend different practices, which doesn’t exactly put more hands on each everyday practice. On top of that, Marlow is paid with a general coach salary of one head coach for one sport. This may not seem out of the ordinary until it’s realized she coaches BOTH boys and girls teams while most sports recieve head coach salaries for each a boys and a girls team.
There isn’t much Paul Powers or the Athletic Department can do about this, since the salaries for coaches are set by the the Aurora Education Association and the Aurora Board of Education and will continue with the set amount until 2022 when the Master Agreement is revisited.
Still, there are noticeable problems the swim team deals with which cannot be covered up with new uniforms in the coming year. The swim season is coming to a close and most of these issues will not be solved until the next season. This gives the athletic department about seven months to address these issues and hopefully something will change for the team.
