Taking Back The Title: Boys swim and dive team wins state and sets three school records

Equipped with an electric razor and an excess of team spirit, James Schipfer, Evan Deedy, Brady Smith and the rest of the senior boys on the swim and dive team gathered in the locker room around the next “lucky” underclassman. After the buzzing of the razor ceased and the floor was carpeted with the hair of state-qualifying underclassmen, each made their way to the restroom mirrors, gawking at the results.

Some short on top and long on the sides. Some the opposite. A handful had uneven, haphazard mullets. The underclassmen were shocked, but still sported their new half-done haircuts for the rest of practice before they would completely buzz off their remaining hair at the end of practice. They knew they had to uphold the time-honored tradition of state-qualifying underclassmen shaving their hair that had been going on for as long as the team had been around.

“It’s funny looking at the freshmen with all their buzzcuts,” Smith said.

Heading into the state championship meet, the seasoned swimmers were mentally prepared to get third place, like they had done each year prior going back three years.

During the 400-meter freestyle relay, head swim and dive coach Wiley Wright made his usual quip about how confident he was in their ability to win. Schipfer quickly dismissed it as something Wright says every year. Every year of Schipfer’s high school swim experience, they had placed third overall at state.

But heading into the last relay, the boys ran over to the scoresheet and checked the point totals for each team and found out that it was impossible to lose unless they were disqualified. They finally won.

“[It felt like] we won for all the seniors before us that didn’t get a win,” Smith said. “It was just really fulfilling finally being able to achieve that first place, and especially being a big part of that.”

All of the conditioning, club swim, workouts and days they arrived at school before the sun rose for practice — and when they left practice when it was pitch black outside — led up to this two-day meet. This was a chance to prove themselves after three years.

According to Schipfer, one of the best parts of winning was finally getting to celebrate with the group of boys that he’d grown close to over the years.

To the team, traditions like the aforementioned underclassmen buzzcuts, team dinners at Raising Cane’s or Freddy’s, sharing brownies baked by the new assistant coach Ginger Waters and a seemingly countless amount of inside jokes sets East’s boys swim and dive apart from other swim programs.

“Club swimming definitely feels more individual and everyone kind of cares about themselves a little more, but at East it’s so different because it’s so team-focused that I feel like I’ve grown as a teammate and a leader,” Schipfer said. “I’ve grown in that way but I’ve also just kind of learned to have more fun and care less about how I’m doing and make sure I’m always cheering my friends on, too.”

He said spending several hours daily at swim practice together has made him and Deedy “a little too close” before jokingly commenting on his constant swimming talk and Deedy’s incessant tardiness. 

The two training partners met at the East junior swim clinic in seventh grade. They both gravitated towards the wall of awards displayed in the aquatic center, both vowing to get their own school records one day.


And they did.

During the state meet this year, Deedy broke East’s 100-meter breaststroke record with a time of 57.41 seconds. Schipfer’s 52.05-second performance broke East’s 100-meter backstroke time. Additionally, a new 200-meter freestyle relay school record of 1:25.48 was set by Schipfer, Smith and seniors Bo Kimmel and Will Roberts.

“We really have a tradition of excellence [in] our team,” Deedy said. “It’s a giant group of everyone just always helping each other, providing insight to the underclassmen.”

Though the new records are quite the accomplishment, Schipfer notes that just getting to spend the season with such a uniquely talented, funny and hardworking group of boys was what he’ll remember about this year.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if we win because what you’ll remember is not a state trophy or state championship, not the amount of medals you got but the amount of memories you made being there for your team,” Schipfer said. “[My coaches said that] they still talk with the people they spend time with in high school and they don’t talk about the materialistic stuff. They just talked about the memories.”