Seneca High School’s swim program came through the season as two separate teams for the first time in the school’s history.
The change was challenging for the coaches and athletes.
Neither team was able to achieve a record above .500 this season.
For the first time, there were both boys and girls teams.
“The kids were not excited about splitting teams. We were very concerned about them not liking the teams,” said boys swim coach Christine Gerber.
Seneca’s swimming program had been coed since the school’s inception in 2004.
“Even before I walked in the door as head coach for the team [in 2006], I was saying these teams needed to be split,” said girls’ coach Amy Gersbach. “I told the athletic director the only way they were going to grow is if they were split.”
One of the problems prior to the split was the lack of interest from male swimmers, according to Gersbach.
Last year, there were 12 male swimmers on the roster for the season. Following the separation, there are now 30 athletes on the boy’s team.
According to Gerber, picking an athlete to swim an event was easier as a coed team, with the ability to choose girls to rally where the boys team may have lacked in strength.
“I don’t have that anymore. A lot of the swimmers are new to the program this year, so it was challenging,” said Gerber.
“We’re a brand new program,” said Gersbach. “You can’t expect us to come right out as a powerhouse.”
According to both coaches, neither team has an abundance of year-round swimmers, a factor that significantly changes the dynamic of a swim team.
“We’re competing against teams like Cherry Hill West or Haddonfield where most of the team is made up of year-round swimmers,” said Gersbach. “In Tabernacle we’re pretty far from any year-round programs. They’re going to have to drive 25 minutes to get to a program.”
Multiple swimmers utilized a gym to establish a fall work out, according to Gersbach. She is hopeful other swimmers will take notice and begin a year-round regimen.
“Hopefully the guys come back out,” said Gerber. “I’d like to see an increase in the column, more year-round swimmers, to beat a sister school and to be above .500.”
Despite the challenge in the pool, coaches have noticed a change in their athletes.
The split brings out personalities the coaches had never really seen before whenthe program had a unified entity.
“From the girls’ perspective, they really get to act more like high school girls,” said Gersbach, noting they sang on the bus each night. “When they’re around the guys they kind of keep that under wraps. It was nice seeing them come out of their shells.”
The same applied to the boys’ team.
According to Gerber, they felt “they needed to be on their best behavior around the girls.”
“They’re a great bunch of guys,” said Gerber. “They like to torture me, which is kind of funny. I always found myself laughing with them.”
Despite the split, the teams are very much a united group.
The teams support one another, attending meets and participating in the social events.
Of the boy’s nine meets, the girls watched four or five.
Additionally, they were matched against one another in practice.
“We get to be one big family,” said Gersbach.
