On November 27th, our school’s swim team made it to provincials. This would not be the first time, but for many members who have just recently joined the team, it is an incredible feat. Emily Horsman, a grade nine student, is one of those new members. We interviewed her and her coach to learn more about this great success.
The twenty athletes on the team have been practicing for regionals since October. A typical training session happens Sunday mornings at 7 o’clock. Because other teams are able to have three or four practices and the LHHS team is only able to practice once a week, the swim coach, Wendy Sinclair, would get them to do a couple lap-swims throughout the week as well. During their training sessions, they swim several 50 metre laps at the Fredericton Indoor Pool; this is also when they are given pointers from Wendy to help them improve.
On the Sunday before regionals, they had a two-hour practice as opposed to their average one-hour practice. According to Emily, many new swimmers were nervous about this training session. “It wasn’t as stressful as everyone thought it would be,” she said. “When we went into it, a lot of the grade nines thought Wendy was going to be super under pressure […] but it was definitely the opposite […] she was giving us tips and constructive criticism.”
Emily spoke very highly of her coach; she said that Wendy was kind and helpful. “I hear that a lot of coaches put a lot of pressure on their swimmers, and I think it all comes down to what the coach does. If your coach is putting a lot of pressure on you, it’s not going to be fun, so Wendy tries to make it as fun as possible.” The tactic clearly works, as proven by their recent accomplishment.
“The atmosphere at the meet was loud and exciting with teams cheering for their swimmers” said coach Sinclair, in reference to regionals. “The Regional swimming events have two swimmers or one relay team from each of the ten participating high schools. To qualify for provincials, you need to come in the top six of your event so the pressure is on!” They began the meet with both the Junior and the Senior girls winning their relay events which Wendy said, “helped to inspire and motivate everyone on the team”. In the end, all the swimmers successfully qualified for provincials.
When asked about how it feels to represent our school through swimming, Emily Horsman said that it means a lot to her and her team. She then described her team’s cheer which is “L-I-O-N-S! We’re the lions! We’re the best!” which they scream before their competitions. She quoted one of the grade twelve students on her team who said, “if everyone is staring at us by the time we’re done our cheer, we’ve done it correctly.” Their goal is to show people how strong Leo Hayes Lions are through both their incredible talent and their pre-game roar.
Unfortunately, due to new COVID-19 restrictions, the provincials have been canceled, but the team hopes it will be rescheduled for January, which would allow for them to represent our school to a larger audience.