Girl’s and boy’s swim will SWIM off against the LACES Unicorns today at 3:00 p.m. in their first league meet of the season at home.

Coach AnneMarie Di Padova predicts that the Swim team will do “very well” against LACES. “I think we’re at a very good spot with two non-league meets first up”. 

“We’ve been practicing on technical stuff to make sure we’re not DQ’d”. Focusing on “turns that are legal relay starts and just starts in general,” she said.

This is also Di Padova’s first time Coaching swim. It’s been “a big adjustment” but “the team has also been really open-minded and the captains have really stepped up to make the transition,” she said.

Senior Julie Valdez, short distance varsity swimmer, said LACES is a “very equal team with us.”

 “They’re matching with our skills and I think especially because we’ve played LACES in the past I feel like we have an idea how good they are” 

Valdez said a “definite strength” is that the team is there for each other “We encourage one another” and “cheer each other on.”

This season did bring on new challenges Valdez said ‘in previous seasons we’ve just had one congruent coach” so “we’ve already known what to expect but especially because this season brought a lot of new changes and a lot of new opportunities of course sometimes we aren’t prepared for,” Valdez said.

“Regardless we’re gonna treat this as if we were playing SAMO which is a D1 school,” she said. “I think we’ll do very well and try our best,” she said.

Di Padova said that their last game against Bravo Medical Magnet went “very smoothly” as all four teams won.

She said there was lots of “team spirit” and “a lot of cheering which is important”.