By Delaney Casten

This year, the hallways feel less crowded and many of our favorite teachers are no longer here.  We can attribute this to the opening of Riverside High School.  This has also greatly affected many sports teams, especially our swim team.

Usually, cuts are made in order to keep the team at around 40 to 50 swimmers. This year though, no cuts were made, and the team only has 35 athletes.  As well as a smaller team, the swim team also lost Coach Getis to Riverside.  

However, the team succeeded in making up for the loss this year.  Many swimmers have stepped up their performance, like senior  Simon Shi, who signed with Virginia Tech on November 11.  The team also gained senior Chase Jackson who came to Tuscarora this year from Dubai.

With the change in size and coaching staff, the new coach, Coach Gallo, faced a lot of work coming into this season.  He intensified the practices, making them 8 hours a week, compared to last year’s 4 hours a week.

“[Coach Gallo] has been putting more weights on us in the weight room every day,” says Shi, “and that is helping us.” “He is making us better outside of the pool too.”

“I do see us making it to conferences this year,”  says Shi.

The swim team’s last regular season meet will be on January 23 against Broad Run.