Staff writer
The Marion Receration League swim team won the Mid-Kansas Swim League last year with a large group of talented swimmers and an experienced coach who consistently drilled swimmers on proper technique.
Marion is looking to dominate the league for the second year in a row using the same formula.
There are 107 swimmers out for the team, spanning all age groups:
- The 8-year-old and younger girls age group has 11 members.
- The 8-years-old and younger boys age group has 13 team members.
- The 9- to 10-year-old girls have 15 team members.
- The 9- to 10-year-old boys have 13 team members.
- The 11- to 12-year-old girls, have 11 team members.
- The 11- to 12-year-old boys have 13 team members.
- The 13- to 14-year-old girls have eight team members.
- The 13- to 14-year-old boys have four team members.
- The 15- to 18-year-old girls have 10 team members.
- The 15- to 18-year-old boys have 9 team members.
The team will be split into two competing teams until the league meet when Marion can only take three swimmers — the swimmers with the best times — per individual event.
Marion Coach Rod Garman said the team is ahead of last year’s schedule, swimming farther in the first week of practice, May 31 through Friday, than in the first week in 2009.
Several experienced swimmers anchor the team. Garrett Allevan — ranked 143 nationally in the 11- to 12-year-old class — leads a group of seven year-round swimmers, who swim with a team in Newton.
Randy Carlson also looks to be strong in the 15- to 18-year-old class.
But, Garman expects the team to be solid from top to bottom. He teaches each swimmer every stroke and works tirelessly on technique — strokes, dolphin kicks, and turns for example.
“By the end of this week, they’re so sick of drills,” Garman said.
The Marion Elementary School principal said that he has been coaching swimming longer than he has been teaching. He coached the Topeka West High School swim team in the late 1990s and has coached several Division 1-level swimmers.
Garman’s experience as a coach does not make him a taskmaster. He realized early on when coaching high school athletes that being boisterously positive is a good motivator, a lesson he has transferred to his work as principal.
“It’s supposed to be fun,” he said.
schedule
June 12 at Abilene
June 19 at HOME
June 26 at Hesston
July 3 at HOME
July 10 at Hesston — league meet