As a junior a season ago, Andrew Tate was one of the top swimmers on Sedona Red Rock High School’s swim team. He finished fourth at state in the 500 freestyle, eighth in the 200 freestyle and fifth on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams. With his senior season approaching, Tate is getting himself back into the form that he showed last fall.
From a swimming perspective, the last several months have created some roadblocks. The most obvious has been the COVID-19 pandemic. Pools throughout the state were closed for weeks. While the Sedona Community Pool reopened, it didn’t do so until June. Even open, the limitations on training have made it hard for high school swimmers of Tate’s caliber to drop serious time.
Tate also sustained a broken hand in the offseason. The pandemic hit right as he was set to return to the water. That’s left Tate with the goal of getting back to the form he had before the injury.
“Since I had so much time off, I’m not really expecting any crazy time drops,” Tate said. “I just want to get good enough times where colleges will look at me and I can continue swimming there. It’s not like I’m expecting to do anything crazy this season. I just want to stay even or get a little bit better.”
Normally, Tate excels at distance races. His best races on the high school docket are the 200 and 500 freestyles. During the club season, he’s best at the 1,000, mile and 200 butterfly races.
But the unusual training schedule of the last several months has created something of a 180-degree shift.
“I got to use the backyard pool but that’s only 50 feet,” Tate said. “So when I came back I felt good on sprints. But as soon as I had to hit over 100 yards for anything, I’d kind of fall apart. It still kind of feels that way.”
Despite being small in numbers, the Scorpion boys finished strong at state a season ago and will have most of that lineup returning to the pool this year. As one of the team captains, Tate hopes to see his team improve upon last season’s sixth place finish.
Another goal of Tate’s for the team is to win the Mingus Cup. Though, whether that meet — or any other — will be held, at least in its traditional form, remains to be seen.
“I really want us to place well at state — just place a little better than last year,” Tate said. “And maybe break a few school records in relays.”
Individually, Tate also has two goals for the upcoming year.
One is that the Sedona Swordfish — the club team Tate swims for — will be left in good hands.
“At this point, my mom is basically running the club team,” he said. “I want it to keep running. I am really worried that we won’t have the numbers or the people willing to step up to fill mine and my mother’s place in running the team. And I’m worried it’s going to fall apart. I really just want someone to step in and keep it going.”
Another goal for Tate is to get himself into a college.
According to Tate, the only way to make that happen is to continue to train as hard as he can to get back to his pre-injury form.
“I just need to keep working on it,” he added. “At this point it’s just about trying to catch up to where I was. There’s not much more I can do about it. It’s just kind of a grind.”
