Not only do we not have a pool, but we hardly have a team.

Our school’s swim team consists of exactly eleven people. Now compare that to our football, basketball, and literally every sports team. Eleven able bodies make up our swim team.

Not only do we hardly have a team, but there’s literally only one boy.

Through the years, our swim team numbers have been pretty stable, but for the past two years, the team numbers have drastically started to decrease. The team went from having six seniors in the class of 2020, to two and three in the past years.

With the team being so small, it starts to truly show the complications when it comes to meets.

“It’s hard to fill events because swimming is such an individualized sport, so when it comes down to it, there aren’t enough kids swimming certain events to get points,” said senior Ava Fields. “We don’t have enough time or energy to focus on our specific events that we want to qualify for WPIALs or States.”

Not only is it complicated for the girls on the team, but try only having one boy.

“Being the only boy on the team has its advantages and disadvantages,” said senior Caden Traggiai.

Imagine how other schools’ teams look; usually pretty equal in the girls and boys. But what happens when Knoch only has one boy to represent the team?

For those who don’t know how typical swim meets look, there are individual events and relays for boys and girls, but you are always racing the same gender. So when there is only one boy, what events does he have to swim?

“It’s nice to focus on myself and not worry about relays all the time, but it’s also difficult since I’m the only one who can get points for the boy team,” said Traggiai.

Even though there are physical disadvantages from having 11 members, the team is mainly composed of freshmen, with one sophomore and junior.

“It’s not a bad thing the team is mainly freshmen; it’s a building year for them,” said Fields.

While some might see having a small group as a disadvantage, this close knit group is confident in their season. We wish our Knights good luck in their current season!

“Pack the barn,” said Fields.