Peninsula swim to resume practice during coaching period

Peninsula’s swim teams begin practice this week, and parents are overjoyed.

“Judging from the parents’ reactions when I sent the emails out saying we might have practices… the parents were just like ‘thank God,’” Peninsula swim coach Tim Messersmith said. “(They said) ‘we’re so excited and so happy you’re providing this opportunity.’”

After drafting what Messersmith calls a “COVID plan” that allows members of both the boys and girls teams to utilize pool facilities safely, Peninsula swimming plans to meet twice a week over the next two months.

It’s one of nine programs at Peninsula High School that plan to take advantage of an out-of-season coaching period that runs through November, and allows student-athletes to return to sports after the coronavirus pandemic shut down all of fall sports in the South Sound Conference.

“I can only have five swimmers at a time,” Messersmith said. “With the out-of-season (period), it’s like our summer training. … A lot of this is meant to get back to some sense of normalcy, and help with the social and emotional connection to their friends and their love of swimming. That’s why I’m trying to provide this opportunity.”

It’s an adjustment from typical swim life for all high schools in the area -- girls swim typically would now be in full swing -- but it’s an improvement, as some of Messersmith’s team have been forced to practice in Puget Sound and Crescent Lake to stay fit over the summer.

“Anything that I can do to make them feel better and get out of the house and off of Zoom and back in the water… I am very thankful that all of my assistant coaches and the water polo coaches are all volunteering our time to hold these practices,” Messersmith said. “They’re all stepping up to the plate. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Both teams will have a break through December after the practice period ends, and the girls team will have a particularly long wait; their season begins March 1.

But even if the season does begin on schedule, safety measures will dramatically influence the agenda of a typical meet.

All sports are to be affected, but swimming has its own particular laundry list exclusive to the sport, including the requirement of masks when athletes are out of the pool, and the removal of a typical staggered lane pattern for competing swimmers during races.

Messersmith planned to blue-tape the pool deck over the weekend to show his some-30 incoming swimmers how to navigate the area during practices and events.

“To have that many people on deck, we’ve got to move along with our phases before any of that can happen,” Messersmith said. “It’s an adjustment, but we’ll make it work.”

Consistent with other sports, locker rooms will not be utilized, teams won’t participate in postgame handshakes, and competing programs will occupy the pool separately for warmups.

Messersmith says the players have to arrive at their events already in their suits and leave in similar fashion.

“They all want a season,” Messersmith said. “They want to get back to being with their friends and feeling better that they’re working out. That’s the excitement of competition.”

Both Seahawk swim teams want to build on last season’s success, which included appearances at the state championships from both squads.

As the boys sent a relay team to the championships for the first time in two years, the girls sent a relay team of their own alongside Hope Flanigan, a Seahawk diver who made her way to a seventh place finish last fall.

Peninsula will return two members of that girls relay team — and three more from the boys — but with relays independently designated as a moderate-risk sport, there’s a chance meets will go on without them.

Messersmith and his wife have even contemplated proposing virtual swim meets, where teams compete and report scores from the safety of their own pools.

“I’m staying cautiously optimistic that we’ll have a season. … Everybody is in the same boat here, statewide, as far as not having access to a pool and training. I can only do what I can.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 6:00 AM.