As many of the fall sports at Warren Central begin to come to a close, the winter sports teams have begun to prepare for their upcoming seasons. In particular, the boys swimming and diving teams eagerly await for their first meet of the season on Nov. 23.
This year Coach Jason Tillage, the new head coach for both the boys and girls swim teams, joined this season with the hopes of helping bring new things to the program.
“More than anything, [I want to bring] just a positive culture, kids wanting to be here, wanting to work hard,” Tillage said. “We all have those days where we are like, ‘I don’t want to be here,’ and I want to prevent that.”
Something noteworthy about Coach Tillage is that this isn’t his first time at Warren. He graduated from Warren Central and competed on the swim team for his entire high school career, specializing in breaststroke and diving.
Members of the team said they are happy with the addition of Coach Tillage and the new style of coaching he has brought to the swimming program.
“The new coach is amazing,” senior Xavier Mattox said. “He has been helping us work on our specialty swimming strokes, and, as a team, he has brought us together and started to create a new culture.”
With their first meet quickly approaching, Coach Tillage and the team are preparing for it in many different ways, like focusing on certain things to help them improve and pushing themselves harder than they have before.
“We’re just working hard on the little things,” Tillage said. “That’s basically working on starts, the basics, streamlining, flip turns and just stroke technique in general. And that's kind of where we’re gonna start the season, and as we get better, we’re just gonna keep getting faster and faster.”
The swimmers have taken notice of this new style of practicing as it is very different from the last couple of seasons.
“We are having hard practices and we are pushing to be faster than last season,” Mattox said. “We are focusing specifically on flip turns and not breathing off the walls.”
The swim team has also set many goals for themselves individually and as a team this season.
“My personal goals are to take first place in every event and to put a record on every pool that I go to,” Mattox said.
Coach Tillage has his own goals and expectations for the boys team this year, hoping to kick off his first season on the coaching side at Warren with a bang.
“I want them to do better than they did last year,” Tillage said. “That’s the biggest thing, which is as a team and as an individual. As for team goals, we will keep those private for now. Let's just say we’re gonna have heads turning in February.”
So with much to look forward to this season the boys swimming and diving team are putting in the work to not only improve on the struggles of last season but to become better than they ever have before.
“We've been working really hard and I look forward to seeing what they can do,” Tillage said.