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Westover Patriots swimming: On verge of a three-peat

sg sf-Swm 01-14 03Nick Carlisle and the Westover Patriots swim team have had a pretty impressive run over the last three years. Carlisle is in his third year as head coach of the swim team (after spending two years as an assistant with the program) and he is quite possibly about to lead the Patriots to their third consecutive region championship. “Our boys and girls have won region the last two years,” says Carlisle, “and we plan to win it again this year.”

Over the years, the Patriots have built a winning program through a combination of hard work, discipline, and Coach Carlisle’s uncanny ability to motivate his swimmers. Carlisle, who also coaches soccer and football, doesn’t have a swimming background. In fact, he has never done any competitive swimming. What he does have is a desire to learn the sport and a knack for getting the most out of his athletes. “I have become a student of swimming. My goal is to learn everything I can so I can do my best for my athletes. I inherited the program from Coach [Harvey] Calhoun, and I’ve learned a great deal from him,” says Carlisle.

sg sf-Swm 01-14 01High school swimming is a tricky endeavor. To be among the best, swimmers must swim hours upon hours in the pool, six or seven days per week without any offseason. Most high school swimmers, particularly those in South Georgia, don’t swim that much. Also, few high schools have their own pool. Their teams must practice at a local college, YMCA, or other similar facility – often sharing with other teams in the same predicament. Teams are often inexperienced and sorely undertrained, which makes consistently performing at a high level a difficult endeavor.

sg sf-Swm 01-14 04Which is what makes Westover’s recent run all the more amazing. A few Patriots – six, to be exact – swim year ‘round with the Darton Aqua Darts or with other clubs. The rest of the team swims predominantly during the high school season. That they have been able to win consistently is a testament to their work in the pool. “We believe that if we practice hard, we’ll improve. And if we can motivate the kids, they will win. We teach them, train them, and condition them, and we help them get better. We have kids swimming right now who have never done any swimming before this year and you’d never be able to tell it,” says Coach Carlisle.

And, of course, winning leads to more winning. At first, his swimmers didn’t really understand the legacy they have been building. As the season progressed, the swimmers noticed the attention they received from other teams at meets. Then the magnitude of what they had accomplished started sinking in. Now, this current group of swimmers doesn’t want to be the one that breaks the winning tradition. “As we won, the kids started noticing the respect that other teams gave them. Now they’re starting to expect to win,” says Coach Carlisle.

 

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Special Feature/South Georgia/February 2014
Westover Patriots swimming: On verge of a three-peat
Robert Preston Jr.

Photography by Micki K Photography

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