After making a comeback last year after a brief break, Coach Kristi Hussain decided to make her 8th season her final season. She made the decision to leave in order to help her parents and spend more time with them.
Hussain and the assistant coaches led the team to a great place last year, however. During the 2022-2023 season, the varsity boys placed 3rd and varsity girls placed 4th at the PCAL championships. Throughout this Hussain maintains the same goal for her swimmers this year.
“I want our swimmers to build their self esteem,” Hussain said. “I want them to learn life skills and have fun all while building up a safe environment that they enjoy.”
While Hussain is still following practice with the same drills and techniques from past years, a new group of coaches has resulted in additional support amongst individual swimmers. The returning coaches include Hussain’s husband, Tosh Hussain, Fabian Villanueva and Jenness Kelly, who is now back after her maternity leave, which limited her coaching last year. New additions to the team include Kevin Aguirre, Monica Botello, and Esmeralda Ochoa.
“I personally think that swimming is the most important sport,” Ochoa said. “I think that it’s super important for everyone to learn how to swim. After high school there’s a lot less opportunities to learn how to swim and it’s often expensive. “I encourage students to do so now when it’s free.”
The team this year is very similar in comparison to last year’s. There are approximately 57 swimmers on the team consisting of 30-37 returners including Ariana Acevedo, Yahaira Parra, and Diego Botello (Juniors), and Alexander Botello (Senior). Still almost half of the team this year consists of new swimmers, including Chelsea Cruz, Daniela Ochoa, Ximena Estrada, and Karime Talavera (seniors), Melina Cabrera (junior), and Antonio Ramirez (freshman).
“I look forward to continuing to grow, to get better, and to just keep swimming,” Ramirez said.
The first meet of the season was against King City and was a great success. The varsity boys were victorious, with a score of 72-11. Against the team they’ve always lost against, the varsity girls, for the first time since Hussain’s coaching began, tied with a score of 43-43.
This victorious streak has remained for the team in their following meets. In a meet against Anzar and Watsonville, varsity boys beat Anzar 87-73 and beat Watsonville 99-3. The varsity girls lost to Anzar 64-92 but beat Watsonville 88-66. In their most recent meet, varsity boys beat Alvarez 99-40 and varsity girls beat them 97-72.
“We’re doing really good so far,” junior Ana Jimenez said. “We’ve won to schools that we usually lose to and I’ve definitely noticed the improvement of the team as a whole.”
The team was extremely proud of one another and looked forward to the future meets with a great start to the season. The team hopes to continue to see their hard work pay off in future meets. “That’s what I hope to leave the team with—a very positive experience,” Hussain said.
