Swimming and Diving teams share a winning bond

With Easterns approaching, Haverford’s swimming and diving programs are making strong progress. 

With both teams having few Sixth Formers, the teams rely on underclassmen more and more.

“Usually the oldest guys are at the top, but when you have freshmen dropping some of the fastest 

times, it forces the team to be significantly more collaborative and connected,” said Sixth Form captain Bram Schork. “I may be a senior and have two freshmen in my relay, and you can’t be caught up in the fact that you are racing with guys younger than you on the team. You can’t let that affect your mentally. you just have to say these are my teammates and they are fast and we are going to win this relay.”

While swimming and diving are two very different sports, swimming’s team dynamic is similarly reflected in the much smaller diving team. 

“Our best guy is [Fourth Former] A.J. Rosenburger, who dives outside of school,” said Sixth Former Fisher Bond. “We can bring three people to a meet so it’s always me, A.J., and someone else.” 

“You can’t come to a swim practice with bad attitude,”

Bram Schork ’22

Bond is the only senior on the diving team and captains it by himself. 

“I’m not an iron-fist guy that bosses freshmen around. I try to keep practices fun, I personally kind of still feel like a freshman a little bit. Practices are really lighthearted and Coach Gaudreau is a great coach. We obviously are serious about the sport, but we also try to keep things fun.”

Schork co-captains the team with fellow Sixth Former Jake LaRocca and likes to make sure that the team feels close and that the swimmers support each other during practices. 

“You can’t come to a swim practice with a bad attitude,” Schork said. “If you are willing to change that, and be lifted up by the guys around you, that’s what we’re there for.”

“Our head coach Sean Hansen gave us a speech today, and he pointed to the banner that read Easterns’ champions 2018 and said that was our mountain to climb,”

Bram Schork ’22

“In comparison to the rest of the Inter-Ac, having few seniors makes it very challenging, but we do have some very impressive freshmen which has altered the team dynamic,” Schork said. “You can’t have the traditional hierarchy that you would see on a lot of teams. You have to be able to rely on the younger guys and be able to hype them up and expect them to contribute as much as the older guys.” 

“In past years we have been pretty separate. The swimming team has done their thing and the diving team has done theirs. This year everyone seems closer,”

fisher bond ’22

The differences between the sports are notable, but this season the two teams have been closer than perhaps ever before. 

“In past years we have been pretty separate. The swimming team has done their thing and the diving team has done theirs. This year everyone seems closer,” Bond said. “Someone will fail a dive and the swim team will clap really loudly. It’s pretty cool. It’s a lot more connected this year then previous years, which I think is good coaching from Head Swimming Coach Sean Hansen and Coach Gaudreau.”

Both teams prepare to head to Easterns on the weekend of February 24, 2022. They will compete against dozens of schools and are hoping to place as well as they can. 

“Our head coach Sean Hansen gave us a speech today, and he pointed to the banner that read Easterns’ champions 2018 and said that was our mountain to climb, “ Schork said. “When you look at that [2018] team we had like six D-I athletes going to big college programs. Right now we don’t compare to that team, so going into Easterns we have everything to gain.”

“We are not going into a meet like this expecting to win, but we are going there to expect the guys on the team to drop best times because that’s all that matters: dropping times and getting faster yourself. The cherry on top is the other teams there have everything to lose,” Schork said. “If we can capitalize on that, if we can get second instead of third or first instead of second every once in a while, then we might be able to steal some points and claim the victory.”