For six days a week and three hours a day during the winter season, the pressure of water beats against LSE students as they dive into the waters of the pools. The water is the foundation of the passion for the LSE swim team, and their love for the sport ignites when they glide across the currents. Despite the internal motivation, many swimmers would like recognition from external factors to help create a solid sense of support. Unfortunately, the splashes of water appear to be the only cheering voices for the team as the seats in the audience continue to be unfilled. Unlike other sports, the hard work of the swimmers seems to be passed up more times than not. 

“ [Swim meets] never get posted, and there aren’t any special events. People who show up are usually just friends or family,” senior swimmer LeoTurner said. 

LSE sophomore Lauren Maw adds that it isn’t just the people in swim who don’t share the meets but also that students don’t look for them. 

“Students don’t really position themselves to encourage and watch [swim],” Maw said. “We started an Instagram this year. I think it has definitely grown the recognition more but before people wouldn’t even know we had a pool.” 

Although swimming might not be a favorite sport to watch for some, there are still fellow Knights who would love more recognition of what they put so much work into. 

“I definitely wouldn’t mind having people come to the meets [because] it’s a really hard sport. A lot of people talk about wrestling workouts being super hard, and they are, but swimming is at the same caliber,” Turner said. 

Not only do practices take up a lot of time, they also are very labor intensive as the swimmers have to do a “land workout,” like an ab workout,  and then proceed to jump into the pool for the remaining time of practice. LSE junior Jahan Fatemi said it’s the hardest thing he’s ever done sports wise. 

“I think people don’t realize how much work the swimmers actually put into it. I think it’d be nice if more people recognized and showed up to the stuff,” Fatemi said. 

Although swimming might be physically demanding, it also has positive factors, too. 

“You get a lot of really good friendships from it,” Maw said. “It [also] gives you a lot of discipline, and it teaches you how to work really hard,” Maw said. 

The swim community being close with one another has been part of the team’s success in years prior, having many swimmers making it to state and hoping to return there this year. 

“I think our girls team is going to do great in relays and some individuals. Hopefully our guy’s team also goes pretty far and hopefully gets something out of it,” Fatemi said. 

The girls finish out their season 7-2 and the boys 2-7. You can support the swim team in the future by attending meets and following their Instagram 

@lseswimanddive.