The 2022 Swim season is coming to a close with the Metro swim meet being held last week (10/6). The swim teams are led by Head Coach Russell and Coach Seagrave as the assistant swim coach.

According to Coach Seagrave, the season has gone well. She said that “Due to the pandemic, our team numbers in the last few years have dwindled up until this year. This year’s team is large and, with swimming, numbers can be a big predictor of a swim team’s success. This season has certainly surpassed our expectations, and we have a strong team this year.” This, along with lots of practice,  has helped the Apopka swim team improve and earn some big wins this season. Coach Russell also had similar thoughts saying that “The girls are the best girls’ team I’ve had in several years. I have less boys than usual, but some fast ones.”

Because Apopka High School doesn’t have a pool, the swim team has to make the best of a less-than-optimal situation. After a short stint of using the Lake Brantley pool, the Apopka Swim team is now practicing at Camp Wewa, which is also where home swim meets are held. Though smaller, it makes holding practices and meets more convenient as the space doesn’t need to be shared with other high school teams.

Hurricane Ian, which led to a week of school off, also impacted the swim team. Coach Seagrave said (regarding the hurricane) that “Unfortunately, the hurricane did some damage to our home pool at Camp Wewa. We were out of practice for nearly a week and weren’t able to have practice before our big meet against Edgewater or our Metro meet with other teams in the Orlando area. All the rain also made the pool quite cold the day we returned!”

The teams have picked up some big wins this season, including a victory over cross-town rivals Wekiva. The teams also picked up wins over Eustis, Colonial, Jones, and Evans. According to swimcloud.com, Apopka Swim is ranked 37th in the 4A class.

On the metros, Coach Seagrave stated that “Both our girls and boys teams showed up and displayed strong athleticism. The boys were able to defeat Edgewater after losing to Edgewater earlier in the week. We consider the win a redemption!” Coach Russell had to say that “We ended up at metro with the boys doing better than expected and the girls not finishing as well as expected.”

Although the season is at its end, any interested players are encouraged to participate in the upcoming water polo season. They can contact Coach Russell at his email [email protected]