Cape High’s swim team remains undefeated with the goal of returning to states this season. While smaller in numbers than previous years, their skill and dedication appears as strong as ever.
The team has shown off their skill in Shark Relays, Tarpon Invitational, Pirate Invite, and the recently attended Florida Swimming Pool Association (FSPA) Invitational in Orlando. Coach Diane Kimble has attended the FSPA’s since 2002 when she first started coaching.
“While it was full of ups and downs we still managed to work hard and do great,” stated senior Nick Rodriguez about FSPA, “I swam both the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly.”
“Everybody is doing their best, we all rely on each other, and everybody’s important,” said Kimble.
Sophomore Reily Rountree enjoys being able to spend time with his teammates during meets and continuing their winning streak, “At the meet I dove and cheered on the rest of my team,” he stated.
On October 6th, the team traveled to the Lee County Athletic Conference (LCAC) at FGCU, competing against every public school swim team in the district. The team went into the conference as defending champions and left with another 1st place win.
Earlier in that week Cape High hosted the LCAC for diving, for the seven divers in the school district, one of which is Rountree.
Cape High has many benefits for their divers, such as a coach that comes multiple times a week and access to FGCU’s diving pool and harness to practice with. However, these amenities aren’t being used to their full potential. “It just doesn’t seem like there’s that much diving in this area, which is sad,” stated Kimble.
A concern that the team had early on in the year was the lack of new swimmers. For bigger meets, such as the LCACs, Cape may not be able to fill up all the spots they used to. However, Kimble sees the bright side of a smaller group, “we’ve got a lot of depth in terms of quality [of swimmers]” she said.
“Our team has done really well even after we lost some really good swimmers after the seniors left,” stated Rountree.
On October 28th the team went onto Districts, and from there they will hopefully go onto regionals. “I’m hoping to see us going to state championships because we have some very strong swimmers working for us this year who have been training hard every day,” stated Rodriguez.
The entire team has a lot of hope for this season given their winning streak within this past season and previous years. Last year both the boys and girls swam all the way to states.
“The sport has taught me many good things as a person, but the one that really sticks out is to enjoy things while they last because anything can happen and life can be unpredictable,” stated Rodiriguez, who’s been on Cape’s swim team for four years now. “This year I’m hoping to see us going to state championships because we have some very strong swimmers working for us this year who have been training hard every day.”
