Anderson Aquagators dominate summer swim competitions

WATER FLYER:
Swimmer Apryl Witherspoon,12, perfects her butterfly stroke during practice for the Aquagators summer competitive swim team.

The West Valley High School pool has been taken over by Aquagators.

The Anderson Aquagators competitive swim program has attracted more than 100 students, and they have become top-contenders in competitions. Students ages 6 to 18 make up the team. They hold practice twice a day on weekdays – up to 80 workouts throughout the summer season. The Aquagators also compete in swim meets each week.

Last year, the Aquagators won the league championship. They also won their latest swim meet. Marc Soares, whose coached the program for 8 years, said he has an idea why the Aquagators have been so successful.

“I think it’s because there’s a lot of parental support and commitment. It’s a program that is in place and consistent. And there’s a lot of good, hardworking kids,” Soares said.

Every student who registers for the Aquagators gets to be on the team. Soares said the students who come to practice regularly are the ones who tend to stick with the program, and perform the best at the swim meets.

“It’s a hard sport, and you just need to come to get it all down. Otherwise, it gets discouraging.” he said.

The Aquagators practice activities include drills and kick sets. “They work on turns. They work on dives. They do main sets - that really gets them tired. And they do sprints,” said coach Soares.

Soares said he hopes students get more from Anderson Aquagators than the opportunity to sharpen their swimming skills.

“Students learn how to compete. They learn how to deal with successes and failures, how to collaborate and communicate with team members, how to prepare and how to put in quality work.”

Kristina Fish, 12, said her favorite part about the Aquagators is, of course, swimming, and the social aspect of the team.

“You meet a lot of friends, and you get to know a lot of people at the meets,” she said.

Fish said preparing for the meets is the most challenging part of being on the swim team.

“The practices are hardest. We have to do intervals, and we have to keep going and hardly stopping,” she said.

12-year-old Apryl Witherspoon has put in a lot of effort into the Aquagators, and is seeing her hardwork pay off.

“I like swimming a lot, and I found out that I was really good at it,” she said.

Witherspoon said the most difficult part of being on the Aquagators is coming to the practices every day, but she said it’s worth it.

“I like being able to go to the meets and the competitions, and just try my best,” she said.