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A Platform of their Own

I believe it would come as a surprise to many residents that Guilford High School is actually devoid of a swim team. Swimming is a sport that so many of us have ventured into for swim lessons during childhood, training for triathlons as adults, or for the many health benefits that swimming offers older adults. And yet, so many children in our town who end up loving this sport are forced to either give it up or swim for another team without truly representing the great town of Guilford in which they grew up.

Under the current conditions, the boys have a co-op agreement with Branford High School, which is only active for two years at a given time. For the girls, Guilford High School allows only three swimmers (out of all four grades) to “latch on” to the Branford girl’s team not to win points for Guilford, but only to race against their own personal times. This current set-up completely removes any sense of belonging to a true team.

Anyone who watched the summer Olympics knows how incredibly dedicated swimmers like Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky are to themselves and to their teammates. Guilford’s own Corey Gambardella (who was actually unable to swim for Guilford until his junior year under the current conditions) swam to the Olympic trials this past spring. Competitive swimmers are innately hardworking and extremely dedicated to a sport in which the slightest one-hundredth of a second can make a difference in who finishes first.

Our parent group is asking the Board of Education to consider including a boy’s and girl’s swim team in the budget for the 2017-’18 school year. It’s time to give Guilford swimmers a platform of their own to properly compete in this great sport and give them a team to call home.

Karen Moriarty

Guilford