Senior Michael Smith arrives at school at 5:00 a.m. to jump into a pool of freezing cold water.  When most people are still home in their warm beds, he and many of his teammates have already done hundreds of laps in the pool—all in preparation for Hell Week.
“During Hell Week, its awful,” said senior Michael Smith.  “Afterwards you feel good you did it, but you’re physically exhausted.”
The goal is to squeeze endless hours of practice and hard work into a single week—the week before the conference meet. It is the last chance for the team to work hard towards meeting their goals before taking on other aggressive teams from around the area.
According to coach Brent Pohlonski, the swim team swims over 12,000 yards during Hell Week.
“The swimmers swim about 3 sets of 5,000-yard drills during each practice session,” said Pohlonski.  “They also do water aerobic exercises and workouts in the weight room to increase flexibility and reaction time.”
Pohlonski said the swimmers practice two times each day with Wednesday being the toughest day with swimmers required to swim 12,000 yards in three hours.
To swimmers, Hell Week is a real challenge and a tough workout that leaves them physically exhausted.
“We work 5 times harder and swim 5 times more yards than at regular practice,” said senior Michael Smith.
Diving preliminaries are scheduled for February 25, swimming preliminaries on February 26, and swim and dive finals on February 27.
Despite the long hours and hard work, team members agree that it is all worth it in the end.
“The swim team is fun,” said junior Joseph Brooks.  “We have a good group of people and it’s never boring, but its hard work,” said junior Joseph Brooks.

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