Southern schools seek to make a splash
Despite disadvantages, they make progress
It has been a while since a team from south of Albuquerque has won a state championship in boys or girls swimming.
Actually, a while might be an understatement. The last time a girls team from southern New Mexico claimed a title was when Las Cruces won in 1983. The last time a boys team from the south won it all was New Mexico Military Institute in 1966.
“It’s a numbers game, really,” said Clovis coach Vincent Demaio, who brought 18 athletes to compete in the preliminary round of the state finals at Albuquerque Academy on Friday. “You have to have a deep team to compete for the top three at state. For us in Clovis, we have the kids that we’ve got. We don’t have people coming from six or seven different clubs.”
Population is certainly not on the side of the south. The combined population of the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro areas alone is more than 1 million, nearly half the state.
“We don’t have the population as some of the bigger schools do,” Hobbs coach Debbie Dean added. “We don’t have that (talent) pool.”
There are other factors as well, including the income of families in those smaller cities and towns.
“The community that we represent, it’s expensive to do USA Swimming,” Dean said. “When you have a higher income group of parents, it’s a little bit easier to keep swimming year round.”
Facilities are another factor. Few schools in the south have their own competition pools.
“The biggest limiting factor for us is coaching availability and pool time,” Demaio said. “The City of Clovis has an aquatic center where we practice. It’s great, but it’s limited because it’s only one pool.”
Hobbs, at least, has some hope for the future as far as facilities go.
“Our high school has its own pool and we are building, it will be open in April 2018, a new facility,” Dean said. “That’s just one piece of it, but that will help.”
Even with the odds stacked against them, though, the southern schools still manage to compete every season.
“They still battle and it’s great for them,” Dean said. “We just came off being district champs. We come up here and (now) their closest competitors are their hugest supporters. I think that’s huge, too.”
Friday’s highlight performances for the southern schools included Artesia senior Jonathan Darnell posting the best times in the 100-yard butterfly and 100 backstroke.
The Clovis girls posted the secondbest time in the 200 medley relay and the boys were fourth in the same event. The Wildcats were second in the girls 200 freestyle relay and their boys were third.
Clovis junior James Skuse was third in the 100 free while seniors Seiji Aponte and Brian Nordgren came in second and third, respectively, in the 100 breaststroke.
Las Cruces finished third in the girls 400 free relay.