With over fifty members, swim and dive has an abundance of personalities to contribute to the spirited culture of the team.
“I think the (large) size of the team is what makes it most unique,” head coach Andrew Koons said. “Other than track and field, it’s the biggest team at Madison, and even compared to [track and field] and other sports that have multiple levels (varsity, JV, etc.), everyone is on (boys or girls) varsity swim and dive. All athletes compete at the same meets, and even through the district meet, meet attendance is expected to support team goals. With up to 45 athletes per gender, it’s cool to have a ‘large’ team feel small.”
Before the official season even begins, the team meets for weekly workout sessions, where swimmers are put to the test with rigorous exercises such as running, squats, push-ups and Olympic swimming gold medalist Caeleb Dressel’s abs circuit. The “dryland” workouts help prospective members meet current members as well as Coach Koons in a low-risk environment. After tryouts, the team practices from November to February, with members required to practice four times per week and attend meets on Fridays and Saturdays. That, in addition to weekly team dinners, means swim and dive members have plenty of time both in and out of the pool to bond with their teammates.
“My experience on the swim and dive team has been great!” Megan Mikell (’25) said. “The bus rides are loud, music blasting, and everybody is singing. Then at the pool, everybody is behind the lanes cheering for each other even if they don’t know their names. It’s a very fun environment to be in.”
As swimming is a primarily individual sport, the only time teammates get to work together to earn points while racing is during relay events. Relays require members to race in sequential order, and other than the first leg, the other three are started by the person in the pool touching the wall. This makes teamwork and communication especially important because an error in one person diving into the pool can lead to the entire relay being disqualified. Teammates need to know how the person before finishes into the wall, which makes practicing as a team so important in the minds of coaches and swimmers because it could mean the difference between disqualification and winning points.
Outside of the pool, swim and dive is big into traditions that follow the team through years of swimmers. To celebrate senior night each season, underclassmen buy each senior a Costco rotisserie chicken in a decade-long trend. The chicken symbolizes the team’s dedication to keeping traditions alive, as well as swimmers’ monstrous appetites. Another way the team maintains tradition is by screaming Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” as the bus pulls up to the pool, a tradition started by a heartbroken swimmer many years ago.
“My favorite tradition has to be singing on the bus before meets,” manager Lizzie Carroll (’25) said. “As we pull into the parking lot of the pool we always scream “Before He Cheats,” and the energy is unmatched.”
As head coach for the past three seasons, and assistant coach for three seasons before that, Coach Koons is focused on helping each member of the large team improve.
“My number one goal is always to have each athlete improve over the course of the season, and in sports that are measured by numbers and skills, that’s fairly easy to track,” Koons said. “Bigger picture, I want each team (boys and girls) to maximize their potential in the postseason. That could look like moving up a sport at districts or regions, qualifying more athletes to regions and/or states than the previous season, or even winning a district title. Outside of the pool, I want each athlete to find a group they connect with some part of, so they want to join the team again next year (or do their sport in some capacity after high school).”