Sparks Swim and Dive captains focused on support

The SPARKS Swim and Dive team, a co-op with Highland Park Senior High, has had a strong season this year with a record of 3-1 going into conference.

Junior Ayla Rivers swims the 50 and 100 freestyle races for the team. According to Rivers, the team’s biggest obstacle has been adjusting to a new coaching staff.
“It’s a little bit of a challenge with the new coaches,” Rivers said. “They’re still figuring out how to give us good sets and how to do meet entries.”

Captain Linnea Cooley also found this change challenging: “It’s been difficult being a captain during coaching turnover because we had to figure out a lot of stuff for ourselves over the summer and during our preseason.”

Cooley mainly swims sprint freestyle events.
Rivers appreciates the culture of swim and dive.

“The SPARKS swim team has a really good sense of community. I think the captains put in a lot of effort to try to make the team fun,” she said. “We cheer a lot for each other at meets and having that constant positive energy while you’re doing something difficult is very helpful.”

Dive team captain Elena Sjaastad finds culture to be an important part of her experience, too. She describes the divers as “chaotic and supportive,” she said. “There’s always a lot going on, but we always have a good time.”

Though the diving and swimming teams are technically separate, they compete at the same meets and practices occasionally overlap, so interaction is not uncommon. “I’ve really liked getting to work with the swimmers more because that’s something I haven’t been able to do in the past,” Sjaastad said, “given the pandemic and separation and everything.”

As for her own team, she said, “I’ve really liked working with the middle schoolers… helping them learn and grow.”

“It’s been a really great season,” Cooley said. “We love each other and we have a lot of team traditions which make it fun. We support each other.”