As the only sports team at Enloe to have won nine state championships, swim sets itself apart from the rest. Enloe’s swim team is headed by Coach Buzek, who also swam for the team as a student at Enloe. The Enloe alum has held coaching duties for almost a decade and a half, 14 years to be exact. That’s quite a long time, but Coach Buzek says she loves all things dealing with swimming as a sport. “I truly enjoyed when I was a swimmer at Enloe. The team dynamic was like a family and we worked hard. I loved it so much as a student-athlete, [so] I try to maintain that integrity now within my team,” Buzek says. More specifically, Coach Buzek wants students to have a “positive experience where they know they worked hard, had success, developed a love for the sport, and friends and memories they’ll have for a lifetime.” Buzek shared that she is still best friends with one of her Enloe swimming teammates.
The swim team is made up of two groups, men and women. Coach Buzek says “swim meets run through a series of events” with distances in yards. “Some [are] individual and some [are] relay events.” Each race is called a heat, and each swimmer participates in a different heat. “They alternate female heats first for each event with the male heats following after.” She says. The final meet of the 2023-24 season will take place on Saturday, January 20th, which is the Conference Championship. After that, select individuals will move on to Regionals and then States.
Coach Buzek is the one who decides which students will participate in each event, and a lot of thought goes into the decision. “It takes quite a bit of time to develop the optimal lineup,” she says. She shares what her decisions involve: “Taking into consideration who you’re racing, your team’s strengths, what individuals can beat who, who is injured or sick, who has a better relay start vs flat start, is it worth it to move one person here when it will affect three other people’s events as well?” It’s a lot to balance but Coach Buzek manages to utilize her swimmers as best as she can.
Enloe swim has four captains: Cambell McNeill, Sarah Foglia, Wyatt Gessner, and Shigeo Briggs. Foglia, a senior at Enloe, has been participating in swimming since she was four years old and has been on the Enloe swim team for all four years of high school. Next year, she plans on attending Washington College in Maryland to swim for their program. Foglia loves a lot of things about the sport: “The people and environment, and the fact it’s an individual sport but you’re still part of a team. I like that however much effort you put into it you get something out of it.” As a captain, Foglia has a lot of responsibilities. “We help Buzek out, like deciding when we do ‘dress to impress’ and spirit days before the meet. We keep things organized, lead stretches, and at every meet, there’s a captain meeting with the officials of the meet who tell you what the rules are for that meet.” says Foglia. Regardless of the heavy load, she says she likes being a captain because she can bring the energy and help out Coach Buzek. Foglia specializes in longer-distance swimming at the meets, typically participating in the 500 and 200 frees, as well as the 400 free relays. When she swims, Foglia thinks mostly about her pacing and “Oh God, this is gonna hurt later.”
The team also has three student managers: Hannah Yount, Tori Strickland, and Nathan Goettsch. Yount, a senior, took her first swim lessons at six months old and has been on varying swim teams since she turned ten. When it comes to Enloe, Yount finds the team bond to be one of the best things about being a part of Swim & Dive. During meets, Yount says, “Everyone stands against the fence and cheers for the swimmers, and people go to the end of the lanes to cheer for the person swimming. When they get back [from the pool] everyone cheers for them. There’s a lot of cheering.” This support doesn’t end when they leave the meet though, as the team has dinner and holds parties on special occasions.
To non-swimmers looking to support the swim team, Coach Buzek says, “I know we have late meets, but it’s not our fault. We get what the county tells us we can have which, unfortunately, is 8 PM. If we could just have one meet where we were able to get student support, it would mean the world to us and would probably direct us in swimming faster!” Foglia believes the swim team always needs more support, saying “We don’t have anyone that shows up, just parents.” Yount adds, “Join the swim team, we need more girls, and follow the Swim & Dive Instagram @enloeswimdive, the swimmers work hard and they deserve recognition.”
The Enloe swim team is a great example of teamwork and the community found within the team motivates them to do their best. Swimming may not be the biggest sports headliner at Enloe, but they are doing a great job and deserve all the recognition they can get. If you are able, make sure to attend a swim meet or two and show the swim team some love and support.
