Hayden Garrett is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover McClintock High School for AZPreps365.com.

This season may be different due to the pandemic, but the fundamentals are still the same for McClintock’s swim and dive team. 

Like pretty much everything else in 2020, high school swimming and diving will look unlike it has in the past due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the McClintock Chargers’ focus remains the same: to drop times, prepare for to be state champions, and most importantly, enjoy the season.

Head coach Melissa Ripley noted that practices and meets may not look like they have in the past, however, the goal of getting every swimmer to reach their potential is the same.

“Every season is different because you have different personnel on your team," Ripley said. “Our seasons run pretty much the same as to how we do them and run practices. We adjust based on the new people coming in.”

Last season, McClintock’s girls 200-yard medley relay placed 9th with a time of 1:52.11 at the Division II State Championship. The girls 200-freestyle relay placed 7th with a time of 1:41.83. The boy's 200-freestyle relay placed 14th with a time of 1:35.62. The boys 400-freestyle relay placed 15th with a time of 3:33.31.

This season, McClintock has nine freshmen combined from the swim and dive team. This year the pandemic forced Ripley to make cuts. Social distancing has required the athletes to be more spread out during practices. The pool is divided up into four sections. One side is divided into two sections. One for diving and the other for four swimming lanes. The other side of the pool has two sections of four lanes each. The Chargers are going off of recommendations from USA Swimming that has only three swimmers per lane.

The Charges have five senior captains this year. Maeve Botham is the captain of the dive team. Candace Farling and Kathy Thach are the girls swimming captains. Aaron Scheidecker and Michail Villagomez are the boys swimming captains.

One challenge to being captain this season is the limited time spent with her teammates.

“It is really hard to get to know some of the freshmen because of social distancing. I am really going to try and get to know them at these meets when we have a little bit more time and are all together," said Farling, who excels in the 100-yard butterfly.

Botham has similar goals for the season when it comes to being captain. “I’m looking to improve my dives but also to build close connections with my teammates," she said.

The Chargers pride themselves on being a very close team. In years past, they would have many team bonding activities before the season started. This year has forced them to be a little more creative. They were able to do a pizza party outside while keeping their distance. Ripley made sure everyone is a safe distance away from each other by having them put their arms out and making sure they can do a 360 without touching anyone.

Trying to keep as many traditions, they have been innovating the way they do things such as their cheer.

“We taught everyone our team cheer, usually we get all together in a group and then we jump and shout our cheer," Villagomez said. "We can’t really get that close this year, so we tried to do it with everyone six feet apart."

With limited time for practices and meets, Scheidecker talked about the importance of every moment. “We are learning to use every second that we have and to put in all your effort at every practice and meet,” he said.

Thach said, as captain, it is her job to help everyone on the team stay focused on the task at hand. “I definitely have to stay motivated and keep the team motivated. I also try to be accountable to make sure we all have our masks on, social distance, and give it our all,” she said.

This season McClintock will be doing all of their meets virtually at home. In order to keep less than 50 people at the meet at once, there will be waves of when the swimmers and divers will come throughout the day. Each athlete has been assigned a bucket to keep their belongings in and to stand near to keep them six feet apart.

The Chargers have four regular season meets this season as they prepare for states. Their final meet is against San Tan Charter and Tempe on Thursday.