The Huntington High School boys’ swimming and diving team can’t wait to jump into the pool and compete for the Blue Devils.
Huntington, like a majority of other Suffolk schools, combines with other high schools to field a joint team. The Blue Devils will be joined by swimmers from Walt Whitman and Harborfields. The team will practice at the Huntington YMCA.
Returning from last year’s team for the Blue Devils will be eighth grader Dylan Proctor, sophomores Pierre Leroy, Martin Newman and Josh Redick, juniors Jonathan Larice and Will Weber and senior Logan Deegan.
“The team looks great,” Weber said. “We have some promising swimmers who improved a lot since we last swam for the team. All of us are very excited to be able to practice and hopefully have dual meets. For my goals, I am trying to drop time in my events and make more events for counties. I’ve been in contact with some of the swimmers and they are hyped for the season. They are going to be pushing themselves to get into counties and for some of them even states.”
The Blue Devils are coached by Meg McConnell. The team is hopeful it will find success. It has a nicely balanced lineup and appears to have the athletes it needs to win regularly.
“I am feeling really good going into this season even under these harsh circumstances,” Larice said. “We have a strong and young team, which I believe will see a lot of success throughout the upcoming season.”
The season is scheduled to officially begin on January 4. In a normal year without the COVID-19 pandemic, practices would have started in mid-November, but the New York State Public Health School Athletic Association and Section XI both made alterations to the calendar.
“As far as my personal goals go for this season, I would like to qualify for states,” Larice said “Although this is a tough goal, I believe that with some work it is definitely a possibility. On top of this, I also plan to see academic success throughout the year and hopefully have the opportunity later on to swim in college and pursue my academic goals.”
As the start of the season inches closer, the Blue Devils’ confidence as a team is starting to build.
“I feel like we’re going to have a good season,” Deegan said. “We have a great team and a lot of swimmers ready for counties this year. Hopefully, some of us will make states and really show that Huntington is one of the best. My goal for this season is to just have fun and make a great season out of what we have due to COVID-19. Maybe even makes states.”