By Alex Gibson

The High Point University club swim team is a collection of athletes who share a common interest. But with that shared interest, what is it like being an athlete on the team?

Kaley Ross, a sophomore at HPU, spoke about how she ended up joining the team.

“Well, I knew I wanted to participate in swimming while I was in college,” Ross said. “I obviously didn’t want to do a D1 team or even commit to a D2 team or any other school, especially knowing that I wanted to do physical therapy going into college. So, I was like the intramural club is going to be fine.”

Ross’ main events are the 100 individual medley, the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. She often ends up doing relays as well.

Sophia Weiland, a sophomore at HPU, began competitively swimming when she was 6 years old.

Weiland spoke about some of the challenges that the swim team faces.

“Our biggest problem with the team here is numbers and attention,” Weiland said. “We’ve probably got a solid 15-20 of us. There’s four of us that are always at practice. Everyone’s busy, so it depends on who comes.”

The club swim team practices for an hour two days a week. Many swimmers on the team enjoy the ambience at practice.

“It’s so much fun,” Ross said. “All the people here are so incredibly nice. The practices are fun and you get a really good workout, even though some days are easier than others. The coach is incredibly nice and it’s a really fun and welcoming environment to be in.”

But how many people know about the club swim team?

“I assume they practice in Millis, but I don’t know anyone who is on the club swim team,” said JT Farabow, a senior at HPU.

No matter how competitive a swimmer may or may not be, they can always find a home on this team.

“I sort of just showed up and found out it was really relaxed and exactly what I needed,”
Weiland said. “It’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of cool people. It’s very quaint. It’s not super competitive, which was something I was looking for. I think a lot of people have a background of swimming competitively here and I think we’re all collectively relieved for it to just be relaxed and welcoming. Everyone’s super supportive of each other. We come to swim, but we also sort of just come to hang out and maybe we don’t know a ton about each other necessarily, but we all will sort of bond over being at the pool anyway. It’s very low-key.”

Ross suggests current and incoming students join the club swim team to get more involved on campus and to become a part of a new, hardworking family.

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Any students interested in joining the HPU club swimming team can visit the HPU club sports website for more information.

Alex Gibson is a senior at High Point University majoring in Journalism and minoring in Athletic Coaching. For contact inquiries, please email agibson2@highpoint.edu.