Old Rochester swim team dives into season

WAREHAM — With no pool of their own, Old Rochester Regional High School swimmers crowd the lanes of the Gleason Family YMCA in Wareham for practices.

In previous years the girls and boys teams have practiced at Apponequet Regional High School in Lakeville and Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne, but leaks and construction have forced them to find a new place to practice. 

With so many swimmers and so little space, Assistant Coach Christina Bonney said practices are split into time on land and in the water.

Despite this challenge, the group is working hard, building bonds and having fun.

Bonney leads out-of-pool practice sessions, and said she tries to make practices enjoyable for the hard-working athletes. 

“I have a bunch of little tricks that I've picked up over the years to make it a little bit more fun, or at least less boring,” she said. “Fun wouldn’t be the word to describe it, because they do work pretty hard.”

She draws on her time as a swimmer at Yale University during her undergraduate studies and volunteer coaching at Brown University. Bonney began assistant coaching at the school when her son was a freshman because she said she wanted to “at least coach one of my kids once in my life.”

Coaching high schoolers is different from collegiate athletics, she said, with a more laid-back atmosphere. 

Because the teams don’t make cuts, anyone can join . Bonney said this means there’s a range of abilities represented, from students who have never swam to those aiming for national competitions. 

“It's a great group of kids, and they're here because they want to be,” she said.

Bonney said they are also a close-knit group and organize dinners to see each other outside of practice and meets.

Freshman Morgan Conner, of Pocasset, said she joined the team in eighth grade because she knew people on the team and has enjoyed meeting the new swimmers that join each year.

“It's a good community,” Conner said. “Everyone's super friendly and the practices are fun — it's never too challenging where it's miserable.”

She said she received a warm welcome when she joined last year, and appreciated getting to know some of her future classmates before beginning high school. 

Riley Karo, a senior from Marion, agreed the team has been a place for him to make new friends. He also joined the team in eighth grade, after seeing his older brother swim at Old Rochester.

“I would look up to the other seniors, and of course my brother,” he said. “I learned a lot from them, and I brought that to my senior year.”

As a team captain, he said he aims to be a role model for younger students and encourage them to stay positive.

“A lot of people will go out and have a really bad swim, and they'll get mad,” Karo said. “I think when you have a really bad swim, that's an opportunity to learn, and that's what I want to teach a lot of these younger kids.”