Athlete diary The first bus trip of the year

Friday, Dec. 18, 2009

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Before Huntingtown's first meet last Friday, the bus was separated into two different groups of high schoolers.

The front was the talkative underclassmen, anxious for their upcoming events. The back of the bus was dead silent, most of us upperclassmen in deep sleep. I guess we knew what was ahead of us, while the freshmen and sophomores were just looking forward to getting to swim.

See, normally most freshmen wouldn't swim in meets, since the team is usually too big for everyone to have an event. But since this year, our team is the smallest it's ever been and everyone gets to swim a couple of events at least, I guess it seems pretty exciting.

We upperclassmen knew this meet was going to be the one of the toughest of the season, therefore took the opportunity to rest for our events.

I think the fact that Coach [Chris] Morgan told us all to make a realistic goal for the meet actually helped most of us. For example, my friend Alex and I, who both swim backstroke, each came up with a time we would like to make in the 100 backstroke.

Setting a goal helped us to focus more on what we wanted to accomplish in the event. Then, when we reached our goal, it sparked more ambition to set another goal for a faster time in the next meet.

Before meets in previous years, our team has always done the same cheer. The entire team would start quietly reciting, "Ah…ah…ah…" and gradually get louder. When everyone was as loud as possible, the boys captain would say, "Let me hear your battle cry," and the team would yell as hard as they could, while the captain would then say "Canes on three, Canes on three," and the team would scream "Canes."

We decided to keep that tradition, at the first meet at least. Luke Dohrman played the part of the captain, which was originally Thomas Morgan.

I feel that the team usually gets pretty psyched after the cheer. It's simple, yet powerful.

Our team was actually happy with the outcome of the meet. The boys team still won the 200 free relay, which is significant because three of the four members of the state record team have graduated. The girls team came the closest we've ever been to Patuxent's score at a meet.

When Coach Morgan announced the names of swimmers who had shaved time off their personal records, he mentioned almost every single person on our team.

Long story short, our team did very well last Friday. Whether we actually won the meet or not, we bettered our own times and look forward to more chances to do the same.

Aron Morgan