Ding! The sound of a text message popping up. Three dots, each more suspenseful than the last. The clicking of letters on a screen’s tiny keyboard. These are some of the sounds that can be heard from Trojan Swim and Dive captains’ phones as they select uniforms for the upcoming year.
How do they decide?
“Just text message,” swim captain Ben Lee said, explaining how the captains communicate.
With five captains, three of whom attend Saint Paul Academy and Summit School (Lee, junior Sam Galarneault, and senior William Hanna), and two who attend Highland Park (Isaiah Johnston and Theodore Reemtsma), the swimmers struggle to coordinate their schedules for planning.
“It’s harder to sit down, especially because all of this has to happen before the season starts. We don’t have very many opportunities,” Hanna said.
Nevertheless, they make it work. Because teammates buy their own swim briefs or jammers, the uniform changes every year.
Hanna said that “We usually use a different suit to practice than the ones used to compete.”
Like many sports, athletes can wear whatever sport-appropriate clothes they want to practice. An old T-shirt for basketball practice and a pair of personal trunks for swimming.
“Captains decide and pick a suit,” Lee said. He talked specifically about the suits used for meets, which captains do pick, unlike practice suits. There is an online catalog, called Elsmore Swim Shop, which the captains choose from, sharing their preferences and order details over text.
Another essential item for swimmers is swim caps. “Usually, we get a lot of say about how our swim caps look,” Hanna said.
The favorite for any student athlete? The team T-shirt. “We have a shirt that, every year, gets designed by …one person. Last year, it was Finn Cox. This year it was Isaih Johnston,” explained Lee.
Occasionally, there are other clothing pieces, too. “Last year, Peter Overgaard … designed a shirt for us,” said Hanna. “Because we won our conference,” added Lee. “It was a special, celebratory shirt.”
But that shirt couldn’t have happened if they didn’t swim with focus and determination. At the end of the day, no swimmer- or any athlete- can get caught in the haste of accessories. Just put on the suit, get in the pool, and go.
