Much uncertainty remains regarding how the high school swim season will take place. But however things do go down, Sedona Red Rock High School coach Dan Morse has high expectations.

Last fall, the boys team broke four school records and ended up finishing sixth at state, despite being low in numbers. Only one of the boys’ contingent at state, Zach Dana, graduated. The rest are back. Additionally, seniors James Alagna and Jaiah Grondin are both returning to the team after not swimming in their junior years.

They join a group that includes senior captains Andrew Tate and Eric Schrader, as well as fellow returning seniors R.J. Edwards, Cody Brefeld and sophomore Carlos Lattanzi. With that group, Morse believes that improving on last year’s finish is realistic.

“As long as everything doesn’t change and the state meet stays with a similar format, we’re hoping to be top five, which is a pretty attainable goal considering we were sixth last year,” Morse said. “We did lose an important piece but we did pick up two new ones. Losing Zach is going to hurt us but picking up those two guys will hopefully help out.”

Tate agreed, pointing out that while the team isn’t particularly big in numbers, the talent on it is strong.

“Almost every single guy we have has been swimming for four years now and is at the top of their game,” Tate said. “It’s not that we have a lot of guys but almost every guy we have can at least be sub 58 on a 100. That’s pretty incredible.”

Things are rounding into form. In the weeks prior to the season, one of Morse’s concerns was finding a fourth girl to join freshman Nia Trujillo, junior captain Louise “Breezy” Taylor and senior captain Izzy Constante. Since then, freshman Skyrah Wilmer joined the team. Morse is now hopeful that she can be the final piece to those relays.

So, while the Scorpion girls don’t have quite the experience of their male teammates, they are also upbeat with the season approaching.

“As far as the girls side, I’m expecting a lot also,” Taylor said. “We have a pretty strong girls team, which is good because we weren’t expecting to. It should be good. We should have some good times. We have some strong girls this year. So it will be good.”

Taylor was the only state qualifier for the SRRHS girls team a year ago, though one of the relays narrowly missed qualifying.

This year, he hopes to see Taylor, as well as Constante and Trujillo, all qualify in individual events. He also hopes that those three and Wilmer can qualify for state in at least one — if not two — relays.

“Goal No. 1 is to get some of these girls and at least one relay into state,” Morse said. “Goal No. 2 would be to score as many points as possible at state. Last year we only scored a couple of points from Breezy and we just missed one of our relays. So the goal is to get those relays into state, get these three girls in on some individual events and then just to score as many points as we can. No real goal on team placement. Just see how many we can get.”

While the Arizona Interscholastic Association ruled that meets can begin as early as Monday, Sept. 14, much remains up in the air about how those will actually take place.

It’s been advised that no more than 50 people should be at the pool at a given time. That will make it hard for the Scorpions to face more than one or maybe two other small teams. Another option that’s been talked about is virtual meets. Morse expects to have three to four meets. But when and where those will be, who the opponents will be or if they’ll be in person or virtual remains unclear.

The state meet is presently scheduled to run from Thursday, Nov. 5 to Saturday, Nov. 7. The details — like whether it will be a normal format or individual teams coming to it at separate times — are similarly
uncertain.

But regardless of how the season eventually does take place, the Scorpions are happy to be back in the water together and swimming as a team.

“They’re all working hard and doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Morse said. “They’re all good teammates and look out for each other which is really one of the biggest things that we like to focus on. We’re one of the smallest teams in the state but we really do have some big goals.”

“I think we’re adjusting pretty well — we’re giving it our all in practice and getting in shape,” Constante said. “I really like our team. It’s a small team but I think everyone gets along quite well. I think we have a really special team. We all connect really well. We’ve got good energy. We want to keep that positive energy, especially in a time like this.”