The Wantagh Swim and Dive team has always had to jump through a few extra hoops for a smooth and successful season. Between fundraising and traveling every day to and from practice, we have had our fair share of difficulties. This year due to the pandemic, we knew there would be even more restrictions and challenges; that is, if we even were to have a season.

While social distancing and remote learning became more routine and the school days went on, our team would hope and wonder if we were going to have a season. Especially for me, and the other seniors, this year was supposed to be special. As our last season on the team, many of us look forward to the many things our “last ride” has to offer, including designing merchandise, breaking final personal records of our careers, and most importantly our senior speech from Coach Rafferty.

With pure luck, the Department of Health finally declared swim a “low-risk” sport. This meant we were going to have a season! Because many other sports like wrestling and basketball were not able to have a season, we gained many new teammates. Many of the new swimmers are really good; we hope some of them will continue swimming next year.

Although we are constrained by social distancing and masks, we are so grateful to have a season. Thursday, January 14th, we had our first meet at Hewlett High School. Our team put up a great fight against one of the top teams in our conference. There are just a few short weeks before divisions and counties in mid-February and we still have work to do. We take advantage of any opportunity we get to train. A special shout out to Coach Rafferty for always being a positive and inspiring influence on us; he tells us to always work our hardest and make the best of our situation. It is in our nature to overcome; if COVID will not stop us, I don’t think anything could.