The Tyrone Area High School swim team open their dual meet schedule tonight with a dual meet at home against Central High School. The boys team has been picking up swimmers and getting better with each season since head coach Rich Bishop and assistant coach Todd Cammarata came on board. This season Bishop thinks the boys may surprise some teams.
“I’m pretty optimistic about the boys this year,” said Bishop, “because I’ve got the better number of boys than what I’ve had. Each year over the last couple of years, we seemed to have built the boys up.”
The Tyrone girls won’t have the opportunity to sneak up on anybody, putting a strong team in the water year after year. The TAHS girls finished second at Districts for six straight years before getting to the top for back-to-back championships and have been a strong presence for some time. Coach Bishop hopes that will continue, but knows a lot of hard work must go in for that to keep going.
“Tyrone is kind of known for its strength in girls swimming,” said Bishop. “They have been league champions three times, district champs twice. We have however graduated a lot of our girls out over the last three years. So now this is definitely a rebuilding year for our girls. The way we are going, we are looking just a little bit optimistic right now.”
Individual starters and relay teams will be determined in swimoffs on Tuesday night prior to the first meet on Wednesday. With the largest senior class since Bishop has been the coach at TAHS, and yet also the least experienced team, Bishop referred to this team as a double-edged sword.
“The thing about swimming is that it’s an individual sport with you racing against others,” explained Coach Bishop. “But it’s also a very team-oriented sport. In order to win swim meets, it takes bodies. We literally have had swim meets where we win every event but lose the meet because we have only been able to put one swimmer in the water where they have had three swimmers in each event. That makes a big difference in swimming, in having numbers of kids to fill every event. With a lot of new kids, we have to get past the inexperience factor. We are working to get past those and we have a few hurdles to get over. I feel we will be a lot more ready after the first of the year.”
The Golden Eagles open with their December schedule- their first four meets, at home in the friendly confines of Tyrone Area High School pool. Following tonight’s meet with Central, The Eagles will host Richland next Wednesday, Dec. 11, then swim against Cambria Heights on Monday, Dec. 16, and take on Bishop McCort on Wednesday, Dec. 18, before taking a break over the holidays.
All home meets start at 6 p.m.0
