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| Boys’ Swim Hits Water |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by David Wolman | |||
| Wednesday, 25 November 2009 09:00 | |||
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Technique is a word that was hammered home quite a bit during last week’s practices for the Osawatomie-Paola boys’ swimming team. “About a 100 times a day,” said senior Alex Weatherbie.  Coach Sarah Dorsett knows it takes repetitions in order to perfect each stroke technique. She’s learned from other coaches on the itty-bitty details of stroke technique. You could say it is down to a science. “Very precise,” said senior Michael Del Valle. “She’ll film us, and if we do something wrong, she zooms in on it and makes us get in the water and perfect it.” Osawatomie-Paola took to the Miami County YMCA waters for the first time this season Nov. 16, the first day high school winter sports teams across the state are allowed to practice. After conducting two-a-days for the first four days of last week, coach Dorsett gave her swimmers Friday morning off. “They worked hard, but felt pretty flogged by Thursday,” she said, “so as a reward I gave them Friday morning off.” Besides technique, core-building exercises are what Osawatomie-Paola also worked on. They brought out the snorkels to do just that. “The snorkels are very helpful for training one’s core in the water,” Dorsett said. Form was also a topic that was mentioned. “We’re focussing on their streamline form,” Dorsett said. “Reducing resistance in the water with excellent posture and line is very important, and a lot of guys at this point do not have the core musculature so I focus on that with dry-land and water drills.” Experience breeds heavily for Osawatomie-Paola. Twelve swimmers — seniors Del Valle, Weatherbie and Gus Hart, juniors Jon Hilliard, Jared Auten, Daniel Dorsett, Austin Johnson, Nathan Laudan, Bill Dillenbeck and Zac Kleitz, and sophomores Jesse Prue and Joey Clinton — return from a squad which advanced 16 swimmers to the state meet and won the Inter-League Championship. Weatherbie, Auten, Hart and Daniel Dorsett are returning state qualifiers. Weatherbie became the first Osawatomie-Paola swimmer in its short history to advance past the preliminaries, placing 11th in the 50-yard freestyle and 15th in the 100 freestyle. “I have excellent leadership from my senior swimmers, who are hard workers and willing to keep the rest on task with reminders, and with just their own work ethic,” coach Dorsett said. Three newcomers — sophomore Jay Boan, and freshman Patrick Kennedy and Grant Maimer — may be out for high-school swimming for the first time, but they come in with quite a bit of experience, as all of them have competed on a club team. So far, coach Dorsett as well as the returners have been pleased with what they’ve seen out of their rookies so far. “They’re picking it up pretty good,” Hilliard said. “Coach (Dorsett) is really taking the time to help them. We seniors usually set examples for them how to do it and pick it up.” Osawatomie-Paola knows its season opener is just around the corner as they travel to Coffeyville on Dec. 5 in hopes to defend its meet title. Osawatomie-Paola’s first home meet is Dec. 17. Coach Dorsett is just eager for her swimmers to get in the waters and take on some competition and use that as a building point for the remainder of the season. “Overall, I’ve got a great group of hard-working guys who are hungry to race,” she said. BOOSTER CLUB Fans of the Osawatomie-Paola swim teams interested in supporting the squad can join their Booster Club. There are five levels of membership — students ($3), “second hands” (students only; free if you volunteer for at least two home meet), adult/individual ($20), family ($40) and red/gold business partner ($50). As a token of appreciation, each member who signs up will be given one free team T-shirt. To sign up, mail a check, cash or a money order to Osawatomie-Paola Swimming, c/o Coach Sarah Dorsett, 1200 Trojan Dr., Osawatomie, KS 66064.
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