This year Wylie ISD welcomes its new Junior High swim team to the sporting stage. More than forty seventh and eighth-graders guided by Coach Casey Pacheco are now hard at work to shape themselves into the future of the Wylie swim program. A junior team brings hope for big wins in the future and prepares varsity aspirers for the rough waters of high school level training. An eager bunch of kids and a new coach with more than ten years of experience under his belt have given new life to the Wylie swimming community.

For many years, incoming freshmen swimmers were introduced to a dynamic they had never encountered. Because of Abilene’s limited pool facilities and training options, new members of the swim team were usually inexperienced. Now with the addition of a junior high team, however, ninth-grade swimmers will come into high school with the foundation to build their abilities to new levels in their varsity careers. With experienced freshmen, the swim team will be able to hit the ground running at the start of every season and reach peak results. 

When walking into the junior high practice, it is striking to see so many eager swimmers in the pool at once. Both kids who are just now learning the basic strokes to intermediate swimmers that already look fit for a competition can be seen giving training their all. In a short amount of time, these kids have improved tremendously. Twelve-year-old Kenzee Petty’s first year of swimming competitively was cut short last year due to covid, but with only a covid year of experience, Kenzee now forms part of the fastest group on the team. Kenzee’s teammate Diego Duarte has never trained more than twice a week but can now occasionally be seen leading his own lane. Already the improvements to the Wylie swim program are being seen, and there is no denying that the future of these kids looks bright. Wylie can now brag of more than forty committed swimmers.

For many seventh and eighth graders, swimming for more than an hour a day has become one of the most important commitments of their lives. Seventh-grader Gabby Cox comments that she knows that responsibilities start mounting up as she gets further into school, but she is willing to sacrifice some of her time for the sport. “I do not mind that school work will take up more of my time in high school,” Gabby explains, “I want to keep swimming.” Eighth-grader Teagan Dougherty even says that though swimming cuts into his Xbox time, he is still eager to stick with the sport. Though it may be a challenging sport to commit to, these swimmers are already determined to work hard to improve.

The 2021-2022 school year invites a new sense of excitement for swimming in the Wylie community. A new coach and a new team bring great expectations for Wylie swimmers, and the prospect of a victorious future has the long established varsity team’s spirits high. The junior high swim team already shows promise, and the swimming world now has great reasons to keep its eye on the ever improving Wylie swim team.