“There’s a swimming pool on the fourth floor.” When asked, nine out of ten students at Patchogue-Medford High School stated that they had heard this statement, or a variation, at least once. Whether it be through their own research or another’s, each student learns that there is in fact no pool on the fourth floor or any other location in the building. The students were then asked if the school had a swim team. Each student answered that we did not have a swim team. Logically, this makes sense. No pool means that there are no aquatic sports, right?

The Pat-Med Varsity Swim Team has been running consecutively for the past seven years. You might be wondering how there could be a swim team when it was just stated that there is no pool anywhere in the school. School districts that do not have pools in any school, but have varsity swim teams are called “independents”. This means that the members must practice with an outside club team, and can only compete at independent meets representing their respective schools, instead of at dual meets. Some examples of other independent schools are Longwood, Westhampton, Islip, and Shoreham-Wading River. Other districts that do not have pools have combined with a district close-by to create a team, such as SayBayBlue made up of Sayville and Bayport-Blue Point, and Northport-Commack. Each member of the varsity team competes to attend the Suffolk County Championships for a chance to attend States. The genders are divided into different seasons: girls in the fall and boys in the winter.

A student on the boys’ varsity team was asked why he believed people don’t know about the varsity team; he answered that not enough people recognize swimming as a sport or care enough to learn about the team. Many people do not understand the amount of time, money, and energy that swimmers and their parents must put into this sport to excel. Swimming is viewed as a leisure activity that anyone can do, but the technical aspects behind the sport often aren’t taken into account.  These swimmers train for hours before school, after school, and on the weekends to represent our school district proudly, yet a majority of our school’s population does not even know they’re competing.  These athletes deserve recognition for their tireless work and immense success over the years.

The Patchogue-Medford 2016-2017 Varsity Swim Team’s current members are freshman Meghan O’Leary, sophomore Garrett Ormond, eighth grader Evan Kaufer, and myself. As a graduating senior, leaving the team after six years is difficult, but I hope that these members, as well as any new members that join in the coming years, receive the attention and support like so many other sports teams within this great district.