The South Lyon East Boys Swim and Dive season is coming to end. However, each individual will finish their season at different times depending on their place in the rankings. The LVC meets will be held on February 22-23, with States following on March 8-9.
Jared Keeney, swimmer on the team says “Most kids will finish the season after the conference meet, but the overall final meet is the state meet.”
The upcoming conference will be a big meet for the boys.
“There are a total of six teams, South Lyon included, in the LVC conference,” says Keeney.
And the boys are getting plenty of practice in “We practice everyday except Sundays. Also, we have morning practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.” Max Toppings, a swimmer on the team states.
Being a unified team with South Lyon High School requires lots of team bonding. Even though everyone competes for themselves, it is important to support each other as a team.
“The swim team is one of the most bonded, if not the most bonded, teams in South Lyon.” says Keeney.
One of the most noticeable things that identifies the team at this time of year is the boy’s hair. Most guys have bleached their hair and some will even chose to shave it as a part of the team bonding tradition before conferences, or states.
“I think it originated because our hair gets so damaged if we do not wear a swim cap. Many guys’ hair loses color and texture to it due to the chlorine.” John Abernethy, swimmer of the team says.
South Lyon is however, not the only team that partakes in this tradition,
“Many other teams dye their hair like Novi, Northville, and Stevenson,” Abernethy says.
Although, some of the boys will just let their bleached hair grow back out and not shave it.
“Of course without a doubt in my mind” John Abernethy, swimmer on the team says when asked if he will shave his head for states.
South Lyon is unified, but, even then, the team still struggles with the amount of people.
“This season is our smallest season in a long time. Even though it is not ideal, we are still a great team.” Abernethy says.
With the team being so small, and heavily underclassman based, this has affected their record.
“Our current record as of 2/6/19 is 5-3, but we are 3-0 in our conference. This is a good record as the only teams that we have lost to have forty or more boys on their team,” Keeney says.
But this does not take away their confidence,
“This new conference is very easy for the swim team, so we will most likely keep the trend of being undefeated for a long time” says Abernethy.
The season has been full of hard work and lots of time in the pool and the boys are looking forward to ending the season strong.
