The Pebblebrook High School swimming team competed in its history making inaugural meet November 2, 2018 at the Cobb County High School Time Trials & Relays Swim Meet under the direction of Coach Melinda Coppola.
“The team was nervous and excited,” Coppola said. “They were excited to be competing but nervous about messing up at their first meet.” Coppola stated that by the next meet, which was the Indian Invite hosted by McEachern High School, the nerves were a little more settled. “They were prepared and ready to compete,” she said. “The highlight of their night was when they got their first trophy as a swim team.”
Their preparedness showed in the meet results. Freshman Josiah O’Connor had the best individual finish of any Falcon taking 16th in the 50 yard freestyle out of 84 participants with a county qualifying time of 25.78. O’Connor also had the best time in the 100 yard backstroke finishing 13th with a county qualifying time of 1:10:36.
Pebblebrook High School has 10 swimmers. The rest of the team includes Brooke Jones, Shalom Blackwell, Jayden Premmer, Juan Gonzalez, Ethan Guilford, Tymere Mapp, Charisma Horne, Haley Shadburn and Carla Molina-Tolayo.
Cappola has been focusing most on improving and not so much as winning and losing. The team has worked on picking up their speed. They condition 4-5 times a week and their goal for each meet is to reduce their previous time by at least one second.
Everything they’re doing during the season is training and preparing them for the championships at the end. “We have one more meet, a county meet,” says Cappola. “Hopefully a state meet as well. Our hope is that one of county times gets us into a state time.”
FALCONS
HIT THE POOL
For the First Time
Joyce Oscar