Shark Week
New era underway for Hatfield
HATFIELD TWP. » They’re Sharks, with plenty of pep.
“Lots of sportsmanship and cheering,” first-year head coach Sarah Glisan said of what she has brought to Hatfield’s summer swim team from her years of cheerleading at North Penn High School. “We’ve tried to broaden our cheering section. So we made a new little area where we have our swimmers — they’ll cheer, especially during relays.
“We have a big group of swimmers and we teach them all these cheers. We teach them to be loud, to shake hands before and after the race. We have all kinds of energy.”
The Sharks are swimming in larger numbers this summer at Hatfield, and along with all of the enthusiasm, there is a terrific focus on development.
“We’ve been working really hard. We’ve been doing practices in the morning and then we started a new program this year called the Mini Sharks, so that occurs after our practices and it’s for our younger swimmers, our new swimmers, to get some extra help, individualized help,” said Glisan, a North Penn grad who is now a rising senior at Penn State.
“We also do this new system called the Buddy System. We pair newer swimmers with older swimmers to help them transition, get used to the meets. It’s been super fun so far.”
And Glisan is providing the direction.
Said Claudia Thamm, a Senior swimmer for Hatfield: “She’s always been a real leader.”
BACK HOME » Glisan grew up swimming for Hatfield and was an assistant coach the past two years with the Sharks.
“I loved it. Hatfield was my first swimming experience. So it made me grow a lot,” she said.
The Sharks boast a particularly strong Senior girls lineup this summer along with a solid 12-and-under boys unit.
“A lot more kids than last year,” said Glisan. “We’re still the smallest team in the league but we’re growing. We have almost 30 more kids than we did last year. Lots of new faces and lots of younger kids.
“Lots of improvement this year. The team’s grown a little bit bigger so we’re loving it.”
Hatfield also draws from plenty of experience, including Thamm, who helped North Penn capture the PIAA State Championship this past winter.
“That was awesome. Winning that as a team was so much fun,” she said at Tuesday night’s meet against rival Nor-Gwyn. Thamm was set to do the 50 fly, 50 breast, 100 free and 200 medley relay.
Of Hatfield’s growth this summer, Thamm said: “Last year, we definitely had our struggles with losing people and not having a ton of people on our team, so this year to see our team step up and have a whole bunch of kids come in is nice. It’s really good for our program.”
From the Mini Sharks to the Buddy System to a whole lot of new cheers, Hatfield’s summer has been loud and proud.
“I get a lot of energy from the kids and it’s definitely a great experience to be a leader and have kids that are looking up to you,” said Glisan, who is looking to attend medical school after her final year at Penn State.