EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville’s boys swim program has nearly doubled in overall number and expectations are high entering the 2016-2017 season under head coach Christian Rhoten and assistant coach Samantha Shaw.
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Bob Rettle directs the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center at EHS and also is head coach of the Edwardsville Breakers. The three coaches are keys in developing swim talent throughout the region and expanding it to well beyond Edwardsville with the aquatic center.
The Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center hosts meets involving college teams, Special Olympics events and a multitude of YMCA and high school swim competitions. The vision of the Fruit family with the center to reach a wide range of people with exposure to swimming are being fulfilled.
Coach Rhoten is especially impressed with the incoming freshmen group and the veterans who are returning.
“The freshmen have so much talent and it is completely untapped,” he said. “If we get them excited to race that helps and the team atmosphere and helps them get going.”
When Rhoten started three years ago, the program had 13 members, now that has more than doubled to 27 swimmers. Rhoten and Shaw work the boys hard, but also have them excited about swimming and competing.
“A lot of them are not year-round swimmers; they also do other sports,” Rhoten said. “Many of them have just heard about it and a lot of them are learning how to swim and are really good swimmers.”
Rhoten sees the beauty of high school swimming as being able to get athletes who are not on the year-round team and teaching them how to swim properly.
“You are able to teach those athletes from scratch and don’t have to spend years and years of doing things a certain way,” he said. “It can pay off sometimes.”
Sprinter Tyler Morris, mid-distance swimmer Brian Baggette, Spencer Sholl in the breaststroke and mid-distances and a host of other talented returnees will led the team this season.
Baggette said the team definitely wants to shoot for a sectional championship again and have swimmers qualify and compete well at state.
For the future, Rhoten sees great things for the incoming freshmen this year.
“They are going to be a good group the next three years once they are bigger, stronger and have better technique,” he said. “We have several on the guys side of our team who are not year-round swimmers. I can’t imagine not swimming the other nine months and being able to swim as fast as they can. There is something to be said for the three-sport athlete in high school sports. I am happy with how the team is performing so far.”
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