To help motivate the swimmers, the varsity swim team elected two seniors to serve as team captains. Senior Steven Prinslow is captain of the boys and Senior Jessie Kutchke is captain of the girls.

To become captain, the students must have shown responsibility, leadership skills, and experience swimming.

“I make sure the team likes me,” Steven said. “I do this by being a great leader by motivating the players when they are feeling down.”

The team voted on a new captain one day after swim practice. The coach asked all the seniors to stand in front of all the swimmers and explain why they should be chosen as captain for varsity swim.

“I wanted to be captain not only because I’m a senior, but also because I feel like I’m a good leader,” Jessie said. “Being captain is fun, but it doesn’t feel much different than not being one, because it’s fun either way.”

The captains lead the team in and out of the pool, motivate them, keep them informed, and help create workout plans.

“It feels good to be the leader,” Steven said. “I like having authority over my peers and giving them helpful advice.”

The captains are responsible for attending every meet and cheering on their teammates.

“It’s very time consuming to go to every swim meet, but I enjoy it.” Steven said. “The team respects my decisions and listens to my advice.”

Steven hopes to keep swimming after high school at either Austin College, Trinity, University of Southwestern, or Colorado School of Mines.

“I possibly want to continue swimming in college, depending on where I go,” Steven said. “Yes I have spoken to several college recruiters about my hopes of swimming in college.”

Written by Khalil Webb

Photo by Kyra Sorenson