Creativity keeps team afloat

While this is an inspiring little tale about a can-do spirit and three talented swimmers headed to sectionals next week, it's also the future of high school sports in an age of budget cuts.

Sierra and the rest of the team — freshman Emma Brown and eighth-grader Kylie George — went to the school board in August, hoping the board would give them permission to raise the money needed to fund their team themselves.

In May, they learned the varsity girls' swimming was on the chopping block — along with reductions to the wrestling program and other athletic department scale-backs.

There is no boys' varsity swim team, but just girls' swimming alone was considered an expensive sport, costing about $12,000 a year to operate, factoring in pool rental (Scotia doesn't have its own) and bus transportation.

[...] having both been athletes through college, they knew the value of playing school sports and how much being able to swim for her school meant to Emma.

In order to have an option to give the school board in August, they had reached out to Steve Boynton, the athletic director for Schenectady City School District, asking if they could work out something.

The girls already swim competitively year-round with the Glenville YMCA — they have for years — but they're proud to hear the snap of their Scotia-Glenville swim caps against their skin before they jump in the water, and they know that the girls' team has a long history of success there.

The girls — who lost potential teammates when they thought swimming was over and joined other fall teams — like to point out that unlike other sports, where some players are bound to ride the bench, everyone gets a chance to swim their race.