Everybody has a competitive bone in their body, but Bowie swim team athletes have more than just one. Once a year, the JBHS swim team practices and preps for the upcoming season by having an annual Red and Black swim meet! Started three years ago by swim coach Chanel Dobrzenski, this event’s purpose is to prepare new and returning swimmers for upcoming competitions with higher stakes.

“It’s a good beginner meet to where the kids can get acclimated to the swim events and what goes on at a typical high school meet, but it’s also a team builder so it’s a fun intrasquad meet where the team is divided into red and black and they swim against each other,” Dobrzenski said.

Sophomore Carson Powers is in his second year on swim team competing in a multitude of events, and further explained how the team is split up to compete against each other in the swimming pool.

“We compete and either get put in the red or black team, and we stay there for our four years of high school. I’m on the black team.” Powers said. “It’s a fun way to get ready for the real meets and see our times so we can improve on them.”

With the season kicking off and competitive meets around the corner, Dobrzenski makes an effort to get both new and veteran swimmers prepared for their event and make them aware of possible causes for disqualification before the genuine event day.

“This gives them an idea of what swim meets are like,” Dobrzenski said. “A lot of these kids, especially freshman, they’ve never swum in a high school meet before, so this gives them an idea. We have a real US swim official come to the meet just so they kind of know all the rules and what to do and what not to do, and they get all their questions done before an actual meet when it really counts.”