Winter sports are in full swing and the Oakdale High School swim and dive teams are coming in strong this 2019-2020 season. 

With new head coaches, Brigid Kavanaugh (Girls) and Chris Lamont (Boys), new assistant coach, Christie Burrow, and returning assistant coach, Haley Fournier, the team is revamped and ready to take on Frederick County swimming. The Dive Team also got a new set of coaches including new head coach, James Goode.

This year the Oakdale Dive and Swim teams had an unprecedented amount of participants, both teams having the largest amount of participants in the county: for the first time, the team must make cuts. Many swimmers have little to no room during practice, which is a main reason for the swim cuts. In addition, the demolition of Frederick High School’s pool, the team can only practice at Walkersville and Middletown, which are shared with the rest of the county.

The team had a meeting shortly after try-outs about the cuts and an email was also sent out with more information: “Due to a record turnout this year, we are faced with the difficult decision of making roster cuts. It is our goal to provide every swimmer with the best high school swimming experience possible, and so far this season we have been unable to provide adequate varsity practices due to overcrowded lanes. Swimmer safety has become a concern for both the coaching and lifeguarding staff due to our roster size, and we are faced with no other choice but to cut down our roster,” stated Lamont. 

Many of the students that got cut had never swam competitively before and felt gratified to have the opportunity to be on the team for some time. 

“I was happy I tried out, it was a good chance for me to try and get active again, I definitely think I’ll try out next year, it’s a great opportunity to get involved in the school and be active,” Kerala Bannister a sophomore, announced. 

Other athletes that were cut from the swim team, decided to join the dive team.

“I joined the dive team because the swim suits were expensive, also my friends dive and said I should come and give it a shot so I said, ‘’Why not?’ explained senior Elijah Royal. 

The team’s first meet was on December 9th at Walkersville High School against Governor Thomas Johnson High School. As of Thursday, December 12th, the results had yet to come back. Go Bears!