Even without great expectations, the boys swim team managed to claim first overall at all three of their home meets. This is largely due to their rigorous practice schedule, mental strength and team camaraderie.

The boys swim team has never contained members under the age of 15. Fortunately, along with the addition of many freshmen, plenty of juniors and seniors brought their leadership to the pool this year.

“It’s a young team, we have a lot of new freshmen who are inexperienced, but we have a lot of experienced juniors. We’re mostly leaning on the juniors,” senior team captain Andrew Roman said.

The way to win: Practice, practice, practice.

Even through winter break, the boys practiced for three hours almost every day. Except, of course, for the days when the school was completely shut down. During these five days, the team was encouraged to swim elsewhere.

During the typical school week, practices are just as strenuous.“We start stretching around 3:30,” Sophomore Evan Barnes said. “We normally do squat jumps, volleyball jumps, push-ups and sit-ups. After we do dry lands, we get in and do a warm up which has progressively gotten harder as the season’s gone on.”

“We get ready to go into the pool, put our cap and goggles on, and brace for the cold water,” Roman said.

After the warm up, the swimmers are assigned a “main set” which is designed to be physically and mentally challenging, and requires about half an hour to complete.

“It’s like any other sport, but in water it’s hard to stop yourself. If you’re playing another sport you can take a break, but in swimming you’re out in the open,” Barnes said. “Ignoring your mind telling you to breathe is pretty difficult.”

On average, each member of the team ends up swimming roughly 2 miles per practice.

Saturday practices are a bit different.

“Saturday mornings…basically, we sit in the locker room until she [Coach McDonald] gets mad at us,” an anonymous swimmer shared.

To be a successful swimmer, proper attire is necessary.

“Speed suits are called jammers. They’re like compression shorts, except for swimming. We wear them for meets–they’re pretty comfortable,” Barnes said.

Attire for practice is a bit different. “A lot of guys wear jammers and a drag suit which is a bulky, small Speedo, but a lot of guys just wear the dragsuit so it’s kind of like a small baggy diaper.”

This year, a new fashion trend of wearing just a drag suit to practice has emerged.
“They’re super comfortable because there’s microscopic holes in it.They’re not gross or disgusting or anything,” Barnes said. “However, shaving our legs…yeah. That went down.”

Outside of typical practices, the swimmers make sure to eat correctly, get plenty of rest, and visualize. Normal practices are so rigorous that extra training is unnecessary. “You don’t really have time to do anything else,” Barnes said.

The visualization pays off at meets.

First, Free State plays the intimidation factor. “We get there early and we want to be warming up before other teams warm up to show we’re ready to go,” Barnes said.
Next come the pre-meet rituals, which include a speech, a cheer, and the placing of Lawnie the Land Gnome. “Lawnie the Land Gnome is our swim team mascot. He sits on the high dive at every home meet and brings us good luck. He’s our guardian,” Roman said.

Finally, the actual swimming begins. Swim meets resemble track meets in that there’s a set schedule of events, different heats, and points earned for each swimmer who places in each race.
“Another reason it’s a team sport is you swim what the team needs you to swim. I swim endurance, so the 500 free, 200 individual medley. For my relays, I do the 200 medley relay,” Roman said.

Practice pays off.

“Winning is satisfying because we swim six days a week for a couple hours, and for people who don’t win first places, it’s very satisfying to win as a team. Every point counts and every swimmer counts,” Roman said.

“Winning a heat feels really good–to touch the wall and look around and see no one else there yet,” Barnes said.

After a highly successful season, the Firebird swimmers are gearing up for State. Meets throughout the season seldom match the intensity of State.

“At State, that’s the final culmination of all your training. You may be super nervous because it’s really loud, really high energy, it definitely adds fuel to the fire that you have to do well in your events and hopefully get top eight and get a medal,” Campbell said.

As for placing at State, the outlook’s pretty good.

“I think Ben Sloan could win some events at state. Conner Munk and Kyle Yoder could get top 8–I really think we can because we put in the work and we’re just really loaded,” Campbell said.

“As for myself, the two time defender of the 500 broke his hand, so I’m like ‘YES! I have a chance to get top 3 at state!’”

Football season has come to an end, but a new season of sports is just beginning. Basketball has already started taking over. The University of Kansas has had its exhibition games, and Free State is conditioning and looking forward to tryouts.

Coaches and players are both equally excited for the games to begin.

“I am excited to be back with the team,” junior Courtney Parker said. “I think it will be a good season because this year we have more juniors and seniors on the varsity and junior varsity level.”

With a new team this year, there are both positives and negatives. The seniors of 2011 have graduated and moved on, and it’s time for the next group to step up and play.

“It’s gonna be a challenge because we lost a lot of good players last year,” boys basketball coach Chuck Law said.  “But we have good returning players and we’ve got some younger players who are coming that will make our practices more competitive.”

Girls basketball had a young team last year, so almost the whole team has returned for this year’s season.

“Since we have pretty much all of our team back this year our experience factor will be a strong force,” girls basketball coach Bryan Duncan said.

Although Free State lost to LHS in football and soccer this year, players and coaches aren’t too worried about the match-up in basketball.

“I think there’s a lot of energy in the basketball game and all of our sports regardless of who’s won and lost,” Duncan said. “I think it’s a lot more of a factor based on your specific sports the previous times.”

“It might give [LHS] momentum, but because we did lose in the other sports it makes us want to win more,” Parker said.

Each game is different from others, and it’s always a surprise as to how a game might turn out.

“There’s so much emotion wrapped into that game you never know what’s gonna happen,” Law said. “You just throw the records and anything out the window when the two teams get together.”

A positive of this year’s season is that freshmen won’t have to travel to Free State each day for practices and games.

“It was a nightmare last year trying to organize practices and bring people from different junior highs to one place,” Law said. “I think a lot of kids didn’t try out last year for the freshman level because it was too disjointed.”

This year there are a lot more students going out for basketball, which will help give more depth to the program.

“[Depth] is the key to success for any program. You gotta have numbers, you gotta have depth and you have to have competition in practice,” Law said. “If you don’t have those things, then you don’t have much of a program.”

For players, the outcome of the game depends on practice. For spectators, it’s all about being prepared. For Firebird football rookies, here’s the game plan for Friday nights at Free State.

Be fashionably early   

Seats and parking spots often fill up faster than the scoreboard does. Juniors Morgan Miller and Trust Marshall suggest arriving half and hour early–unless, of course, one’s primary interest does not lie on the field.

“I don’t really watch the games,” Marshall said. “I use them as more of a social thing.”

And for socializing, she added, there’s no need to show up before kickoff.

The unwritten seating arrangement

The stadium is not a classroom: there is no carefully crafted outline that places so-and-so next to what’s-his-face in the third row. However, there are a few guidelines to keep in mind while combing through the tiers of tan brick.

First and foremost, opposing teams sit on opposite sides of the stadium. Feel free to mingle, but don’t venture too far into enemy territory.

Second, parents of players have VIP passes to the front of the stadium. It’s a good rule of thumb to avoid standing between a mother and her son–especially when that son is being tackled by a stampede of teenage boys.

Third, though the best seats in the house are “towards the front of the student section, definitely,” according to senior J.D. Prochaska, those are unofficially reserved for upperclassmen.

“Seniors are at the rail, standing,” Prochaska said. Underclassmen generally fill in behind them. “Parents like to sit at the top of the student section.”

But that’s not to say all students like to see parents in their section. Since the stadium is often crowded, it is preferred that parents fill up the remaining six sections rather than hike up the students’ 39 steps.

(See a former Free Press reporter’s opinion on parents in the student section here: http://www.fsfreepressonline.com/opinion/2010/10/27/parents-in-the-student-section/.)

Befriend your local weatherman

High school football games run in the fall, that awkward season between 100-degree heat and sub-zero snowstorms. Knowing how to prepare for Kansas’ weather is like trying to predict the next question on the MAP test.

The only surety is a Free State t-shirt. Jeans, shorts and jackets are never a bad idea.

Marshall also suggests wearing closed toed shoes.

“I run around a lot at games, and I’m not the most graceful person ever,” she explained.

Running around or not, spectators should expect to spend much of the game on their feet, according to Prochaska. But in case hours of standing upright sounds exhausting, there are always the solid stone ledges that surround the field.

“Bring blankets, because the seats are not comfortable,” Marshall said.

The other purpose of a blanket, of course, is to keep the audience warm. To further combat the cold, Miller recommends bringing instant hand warmers, which can be found across the street at CVS.

Food for thought

Yes, Orange Leaf and Smashburger are right next door. No, frozen yogurt and cheeseburgers are not allowed in the stadium.

That applies to all outside food and drink. Spectators can stop by the concessions stand for chips and a hot dog if they feel their tummies rumbling, but coolers from home are prohibited.

All proceeds from the concessions stand go to the school.

Everything in moderation…except cheering

As far as crowd participation goes, “there’s no limit,” according to freshman Justin Narcomey, who plans to play football for Free State this fall.

“Most people yell pretty much on every play,” Prochaska added.

Just make sure the Free State side is actually yelling for Free State.

“Don’t accidentally cheer for the wrong team,” Marshall warned. “I’ve done that before.”

That was at an early game in 2010, when Marshall was a new sophomore. She didn’t have a football cheat sheet printed in her school newspaper.

But cheering too rowdily against the opposing team can be just as culpable as a “Go! Fight! Win!” in the wrong direction. Marshall recalls one game in which a Lawrence High School student approached the Free State section to provoke the high school rivalry. Eventually, security came to escort him back to the visitors’ side.

Insults, Marshall affirmed, are not the answer to the question of competition.

“We just have to show them we’re better by winning,” she said.

First Firebird Football of Fall 2011

Team               Time            Date            vs               Location
Freshman        4:15 p.m.       9/1     Olathe South     Home
Sophomore      4 p.m.            9/1     Olathe South     Olathe South
Junior Varsity  10 a.m.          9/3     Olathe South     Home
Varsity            7 p.m.            9/2     Olathe South     Olathe South

See full schedule at http://www.highschoolsports.net/Month/Lawrence-Free-State-Lawrence-KS/All/All/All/2011/September/

It’s not just about making signs and performing at assemblies, though. These cheerleaders devote most Friday nights, and sometimes even Tuesday nights, to cheer at football and basketball games.

“We also make appearances at other games,” senior captain Aly Frydman said. “For big games we go to the player’s houses and decorate them and make signs.”

The three captains are close, much like the bond that the squad forms.

“When you spend that much time together and go to camp together and are together all the time you make some good friends,” Frydman said.

Though gymnastics is a sport in high school, the Kansas State High School Activities Association does not consider cheer a sport. The squad practices three or four times a week at school for two hours, but finding the time can be difficult. Even though they invest much of their time, people don’t appreciate that investment.

“Cheer is different because it isn’t considered a sport,” senior captain Cali Brasseur said. “It is harder for us to practice because it conflicts with other sports’ practices, but at the same time it is just as important as the other sports because they depend on us to support them and get the student body involved.”

While the sports depend on the cheerleaders for support, the cheerleaders depend on these captains for instruction. The squad and the coaches voted on the captains at the beginning of the year.

“As captains we have a lot more responsibilities and actually make decisions for the squad,” Brasseur said. “We make decisions about what we wear and help with the performances and routines.”

Having so many practices and so many responsibilities doesn’t leave these captains to have a lot of free time.
“Most of the year I’m doing two different sports,” Frydman said. “Which limits the social life I can have. When I do gymnastics I’m here from the beginning of the school day until nine, with only an hour break.”
Though the girls’ busy schedule of practices and games may cut into their free time, it helps when the squad is close.
“The closer you get with people on the squad the better it is,” Frydman said. “I think that goes for most things you do: the more people you meet in it and the more involved you are makes it a better experience.”
Reed agrees.
“It’s all about relationships.”

The pool churns like a foamy tornado behind legs ferociously but deliberately kicking the icy blue water. A hand slices through the surface until the palm slaps flat against the wall, and a face bursts into the air. At once the swimmer rips the goggles from her face to see the number for which she has labored so hard: her time, the driving force behind these aquatic athletes.

“It’s not always about winning; it’s about getting better,” senior Katy Thellman said. Thellman is one of three captains of the girls’ swim team.

“Getting better” implies cutting down one’s time, so the swimmer is essentially competing against both opponents and herself.

“Swimming’s not an easy sport,” said Annette McDonald, who coaches both the girls’ and the boys’ swim teams. “A lot of people think it is, but you’ve really got to put in your time and work on good technique.”

The weekly schedule can attest to her words. The girls practice at the Indoor Aquatic Center every day except Sunday, including afternoon practices running Monday through Friday. Additional practices are held from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m.on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but McDonald said “not everybody goes to [those].”

“I had about eight people come for about an hour,” she said of that day’s morning session. “Eight out of 28, so 20 got to sleep in. Not bad.”

“It does take up a lot of time—it’s like two hours after school every day—but you learn to adjust,” Thellman said. “You have to motivate yourself to do both to be able to get in swimming and homework.”

With state swimming competitions quickly approaching, practices are becoming increasingly challenging, sophomore Morgan Miller observes.

“Two days ago was the hardest of the season by far,” she said.

The effects of rigorous training are obvious when it comes to meets, according to McDonald.

“It’s really easy to see improvement,” she said. “What you have is a time, and I can say without a doubt everyone has improved their time from the beginning of the season to where we are right now. The goal is to improve even more.”

Miller knows exactly where she wants to boost her speed.

“Right now I have a state cut in a relay,” Miller said. “But I’m hoping to get an individual one in a freestyle stroke. We have two more meets, and JV League is the big one, where we’ll hope to get a lot of points and lose a lot of time.”

But there is more to being a swimmer than getting a chance to swim laps in the limelight. Miller also values the friends she has made on the team since her freshman year.

“It was a good connection to the high school when I was from junior high.”

Thellman, who has been swimming on the team since her sophomore year, appreciates the group’s companionship as well.

“I really just like being on a team because we always have good people, good friends, and I always make new friends. I meet a whole lot of people that I wouldn’t get to know otherwise.”

The coach agrees.

“It’s a really great group,” McDonald said. “They really want to be like a team, so we all wear our team uniforms; we all wear our team shirts. They stay and they cheer each other on. They’re sitting there watching the divers, clapping after every time they dive. They’re at the end of the pool, cheering somebody on to make them go faster, and they’re always giving high-fives.”

McDonald hopes that coming meets will warrant many more high-fives. State swimming prelims and finals are scheduled on May 20 and 21, respectively. Until then, the girls will be training tirelessly to taper their times.

But despite his success, Kukuk isn’t treated any differently than the other players on the team.  When asked if Kukuk ever gets special treatment, Hill burst out laughing.

    “Absolutely not,” Hill said. “I think you ought to ask him that question.”
    Kukuk has played baseball since he was six, and his favorite part of the game is “the competition and trying to be better than the other team.”

Last year the varsity baseball team had an impressive 19-6 record. Falling short in the semifinals at state last year helps motivate the current baseball team to have the best season possible.

    “Me and him pretty much make up the pitching staff,” senior Colin Toalson said. “We have other guys, but we pitch the majority of the time.  He’s a big component on the mound, and his bat helps out, too.”