Swim begins training for hopeful season

The men and women's swim teams of Golden West are preparing for their first meet on Friday, Feb. 11 going up against Riverside, Cypress and Santa Ana colleges.

Women's swim head coach Kyle Kopp comments, "They have to put the time in and have quality practices and put the time into training. Whenever a group wants to commit to that, I think anything's possible.

Kopp stressed that through training and practices his team is capable of winning the conference championship that has eluded him since 2001 and he stresses this point by holding 6 a.m. practices.

"The whole thing is done in training; if they're willing to come out and put in the quality work and training then everything else takes care of itself."

As an individual-based sport, it is important to have a balance of talent on a swim team so as to maximize scoring in meets. Kopp believes his team could be capable of being a balanced team that could challenge the top of the Orange Empire Conference.

"We're a balanced group. Our first meet is this Friday so that'll be the time when we put people in different events, but I think we're a pretty balanced group."

Kopp would not single out individual swimmers that could be top contributors as he believes the group is balanced enough to receive significant contributions from a number of swimmers.

"It's a good conference in aquatics. It's the same cast of characters and we'll have to see what everybody has and after a few meets you'll have to figure out where to put people to score points."

The women's swimming and men's swimming teams will both open conference play and season play at their home pool at 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 11.