You'll see them in the swimming pool at 6 a.m. They eat breakfast together in the student union at 8 a.m., go to their classes and meet again for lunch. They jump back in the pool at 3 p.m. and then go and eat dinner together. Finally, they go and cheer on the volleyball team playing in the Main Gym or the women's soccer team at Maloney Field.
This is a typical day for SF State's swim team.
To the 24 men and women swimmers, being part of the team does not mean just showing up for practice. To them, being on the team is a lifestyle. They stick together as if they were a tribe with sacred rituals.
"We are more than a team -- we're a unit," said senior Ryan Dawkins, 21, who is in his third year with the swim team. "We are coming together more than ever before."
When the swimming season started seven weeks ago, only a handful were returnees. Unfamiliar faces were everywhere. But the team has found a shape and philosophy that Bruce Brown has never seen in his eight years as SF State swimming coach.
"This is the best environment in my time here," Brown said, "and that is one of the reasons why we have such a good team this year."
Although swimming is more of an individual sport than a team sport, it's the team spirit that makes every individual perform at his or her best.
"It takes a team to swim fast," said sophomore Donald Davis, 19. Everyone's cheering for each other and showing that they're there for them."
Freshman Heather Kimball, 18, said that when SF State competed against Stanford two weeks ago, the support everyone showed for each other was not like anything she had ever seen.
"We were the only ones you could hear in there," she said.
But the swimmers are not just cheering on themselves, other SF State sports also enjoy their wild enthusiasm.
Just ask the women's soccer and volleyball teams. When they play, the swimmers are in the stands screaming, clapping and waving banners reading "Go Gators."
Dawkins said that not a day passes without them getting together outside school.
Although they have a lot of fun together, Brown makes sure the two practices a day prepare them for the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference, where SF State competes against several Division I schools.
"We practice really hard," Dawkins said. "Each of us swim about 10,000 to 11,000 yards every day (about 6.5 miles)."
By the end of the season, that means everyone has swum roughly 850 miles, or the equivalent of a round-trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
[ Golden Gater - November 7, 1996 ]
All Rights Reserved © 1996 HTML by Steve Thoemke (sthoemke@nermal.santarosa.edu)