The Sedona Red Rock High School boys’ varsity swim season will start on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 4 p.m. at the Posse Grounds Community Pool with the Scorpions facing off against Prescott Varsity and Gilbert Christian. 

“We’re going to four qualifier meets this year, as opposed to just two last year. We’ll have three home meets,” Head Coach Jodi Thornton said. “We already have [a] great team with the older kids, they’re working on dives with the younger kids right now. I’m looking forward to the season. Everybody’s got some level of swimming experience or athletic experience, which isn’t required, but I think they’ll do good. It’s going to be a fun season.” 

The majority of this year’s swimmers are making their first appearances at the varsity level after 97 seniors graduated from Sedona-Oak Creek School District in May. During the Aug. 6 SOCSD governing board meeting, Superintendent Tom Swaninger, a former swimmer, expressed concern over the number of available swimmers. 

“[Swaninger] had told me there’s going to be a swim team either way, but yes, there was a concern that we weren’t going to have enough people to have a swim team,” Thornton said and credited the Sedona swimming community with being able to increase the combined size of both teams from 11 to 13 swimmers this year — nine boys, four girls. Junior Colin Ledbetter has taken over as the boys’ team captain in addition to swimming year-round for the Sedona Race Pace swim club. 

“Before practice even started, Colin had a good idea of who might need what kind of instruction and where their swimming level was, so he’s really proactive,” Thornton said. “Colin should be one of the top qualifiers and medalists at state, probably in butterfly and or breaststroke.” 

Ledbetter said becoming team captain was a bit of a shock, after spending his last two seasons looking up to older kids who had taken him under their wing, but added that he is excited to take on the responsibility. 

“Stepping up to this leadership role has made me a bit stronger mentally and I’ve had a realization more that I can’t be weak, that I need to step up for these kids and be a role model,” Ledbetter said. “So I think that it will have an effect on my performance and how I’m going to take this season.” 

Ledbetter has set a goal of breaking school records in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke events. “I think I have a pretty good shot of breaking those school records this year,” he said. 

“[Ledbetter] is great with his words and he has a positive impact on everyone because he’ll let you know when you did something good and [he’s] great at giving credit where credit is due,” junior Filip Atanasovski said. 

“I want them to take away their feeling of confidence,” Thornton said. “Swimming puts you in a totally unfamiliar environment, and it’s incredible to watch our students, especially those who excel in other dry land sports, adapt their coordination to the pool.” 

“I know there was some open spots on the swim team,” senior newcomer Jayden Amodeo said. “I want to be in shape for basketball … I want to be good for my final year.” 

Conditioning also brought out fellow basketball players Steel Sturgeon and Atanasovski. 

“I prefer sprinting events because I’m better at it, and have more fun doing it rather than swimming long distance,” Atanasovski said. ”I want to show my speed off, rather than I want to see how long I can swim for.” 

Sturgeon, a junior, said he’s enjoying the challenge of learning a new sport, especially the butterfly stroke, which he likes best because it’s the hardest. 

“The first reason I joined this was to get in better condition for basketball and track and to be more dominant on the court,” Sturgeon said. “But now that I’m in this and I’ve swam for two days, I realized that I like it … we’ll see how far my athleticism from track and basketball take me.” 

Freshman Hoyt Henderson also wants to improve on his butterfly to build on his main events in freestyle. 

“[Track] helped me get into a schedule and just being consistent and it helped me learn commitment and how to dedicate my time to the things that I enjoy,” sophomore Keldon Cain said, who said that he rejoined the swim team after dropping it early in the season last year. 

“After I dropped out, I regretted it, I just saw other people that were doing swim and watching their success. I was sad that I missed out on a good opportunity. So I wanted to come back and prove to myself that this can be the year that I make something happen and just take another chance.” 

“We’ll be seeing how the team develops over the next couple of weeks,” Thornton said. “Our first meet is a home meet, Sept. 4, at four o’clock, and that will be our first real show of who’s going to take what direction for the rest of the season.” 

The swimmers on the girls’ team will be featured in the Friday, Aug. 23, edition.