The swim team’s first meet was held Dec. 10 against Beaver Falls and Cornell, and they are feeling ready to go for this season. Before the first meet, there have been many practices to prep the new and old members. Most of the swimmers drive themselves to practice, but the others catch a bus. They have to wait at the school until their bus is done with its own route. This is a huge setback for these few, though, because the other swimmers are already in the pool and warming up. Practice is important to some members of the team because they push each other, which is Sophomore Josh Battaglia’s favorite part of practice. The practices consist of a warm up, workouts and a cool down. The warm up is a 1200 yard swim, which is 24 laps to one end of the pool and back. The workouts are where practicing swimming techniques comes in, such as sprints, different strokes and flip turns. The cool down allows the swimmers to relax after a hard practice. The team is bigger and better this season because they managed to round up more guys and girls. Some of them are brand new to the team and others are returning for more. The boys’ team is bigger than the girls’, which is unique to the Freedom team because most other teams are the exact opposite. Another uncommon aspect of Freedom’s swim team is the coaching because, “[Coach Bill Layton] is more of a father character,” Battaglia said. Layton not only supports his swimmers, but anyone who is interested in joining. Teamwork is huge. Even though swimming seems to be more of an individual sport, there is still no “I” in “team.” The swimmers on the relay teams prove this. There are four athletes per relay team, and they have to be on the same page mentally because they must be able to count on each other. The swimmers do their best to help each other out before a big race. The athletes not on the relay team don’t just sit around and watch either; they are right on the deck cheering on their teammates. This special support comes from working hard at practice and being closely knit by the love for swimming.