There's a trend in this state (Rhode Island) that disappoints me. From time to time, in certain meets, they will do away with the 500 freestyle. And (when my daughter was on the HS team) I personally witnessed that it's sometimes because the coaches can't entice anyone to swim it. Lame! Sometimes it's because the team is so small that they don't have enough swimmers. OK...maybe! First, if I were the coach, and I have plenty of swimmers on my team, I pick a kid and tell him/her to get up on the blocks and swim the race!!! But...if the rules are going to be bent by not conducting an event...when a team is truly shorthanded...why not bend the rules differently? Instead of scratching an event, let certain swimmers compete in an extra event so that ALL the scheduled events can be competed?
Dan
I began my swimming career at Weequahic HS in Newark. When I showed a little bit of promise, my father decided to move to Westfield. Best thing that ever happened to me! We practiced at the Westfield Y for an hour a day, only 5 days a week. We did not have a pool at the school. We did not swim circles, but waves, so we had plenty of rest between swims. If we did 1500 yards a day, that was a lot. We swam from December to March for the HS, then March April for the Y. We did not do dry lands or year round swimming and some of the times we did then are still considered good.
We swam against The Hill School, The Lawrenceville School, Pingry and Newark Academy, also the Yale freshman and Princeton freshman at a time when freshman and upperclassmen had separate teams.
There was no recruiting at Westfield, but people knew of our reputation and moved to the town. Swimming was big in Westfield.
Yes, every year at NJ HS State Swimming Championship held at Princeton University Dillon pool, we would always be in awe of Westfield HS Swim Team. I swam at Somerville HS and we were a small team that would place a few swimmers and relays in finals in our good years. Westfield had that great breaststroker, I believe it was something like Perkowski, who held the state record of 1:01 for many years. I'm glad you were able to have the experience of swimming at Westfield with such a great legacy that continues to this day!
I began my swimming career at Weequahic HS in Newark. When I showed a little bit of promise, my father decided to move to Westfield. Best thing that ever happened to me! We practiced at the Westfield Y for an hour a day, only 5 days a week. We did not have a pool at the school. We did not swim circles, but waves, so we had plenty of rest between swims. If we did 1500 yards a day, that was a lot. We swam from December to March for the HS, then March April for the Y. We did not do dry lands or year round swimming and some of the times we did then are still considered good.
We swam against The Hill School, The Lawrenceville School, Pingry and Newark Academy, also the Yale freshman and Princeton freshman at a time when freshman and upperclassmen had separate teams.
There was no recruiting at Westfield, but people knew of our reputation and moved to the town. Swimming was big in Westfield.
Yes, every year at NJ HS State Swimming Championship held at Princeton University Dillon pool, we would always be in awe of Westfield HS Swim Team. I swam at Somerville HS and we were a small team that would place a few swimmers and relays in finals in our good years. Westfield had that great breaststroker, I believe it was something like Perkowski, who held the state record of 1:01 for many years. I'm glad you were able to have the experience of swimming at Westfield with such a great legacy that continues to this day!
