This year the Fayetteville-Manlius swim and dive team experienced an amazing season, with their success culminating at the end of the season when the team became champions of their section.
At the beginning of the season the team had a stroke of good luck when Henninger High School was kind enough to lend their pool to FM for training and meets. Another good sign was the large number of athletes who had returned to the team from last season. There was also a large influx of underclassmen and middle schoolers to team tryouts. “This season we had a lot more younger athletes… Like a lot more 8th and 9th graders,” said head coach, Timothy Gallivan, “and I feel like this helped the team as there was this competitive attitude between the young kids, trying to get new spots and the old kids, trying to keep said spots.”
Since the swim team had issues with finding a pool to practice in, they had to have a reduced 4 meet season instead of the regular 7 meet season. However, the team still pushed through and showed off their many strengths like their sense of togetherness. Everyone was always included and pushed to do their best. Gallivan said, “All the new swimmers and divers as well as the returning athletes all are very good people, them being great athletes are just a bonus. They’re all very empathetic and very caring and hard working.” To achieve this sense of community, the team participated in many group bonding activities like water polo, sending everyone off the diving board, and some competitive swim challenges.
When it came to the swim team’s performance, the boys did absolutely spectacular, winning every single meet this season. FM won their first meet in a landslide victory against JD/CBA, 100 points – 84 points. The team had another massive victory at their third meet against Liverpool, where FM won 103-80. This victory was special because Liverpool was supposed to be one of the better schools in the section; however, FM was able to upset them. FM’s final meet of the non-sectional season was against last year’s sectional winners, Baldwinsville. In a hard fought meet, FM was able to squeeze out a close 93-84 win before going on to win sectionals.
This past season, the FM swim and dive team was able to grow in both size and talent, and this growth showed during their performances at meets and in their bonding as a team. “We used to have a team motto that meant ‘greatness from small beginnings,’ I feel like this reflects in our athletes a lot. I’m looking forward to next season and I am looking for a few school records being broken as well as maybe winning state qualifiers,” said Coach Gallivan.
Coach and the team members are all looking forward to great accomplishments that can be achieved next season. If the team can pull together another amazing season like this one, then the sky’s the limit for the FM swim and dive team. Let’s go Hornets!
