This year, Boothbay Region High School finally has a swim team.

There are 13 athletes currently on the team, including freshmen Elizabeth Bradstreet-Doughty, Molly Thibault and Chelsie Graves; sophomores Samantha Carter, Brad Tibbetts, Vicente Haro, Meghan Oakes and Jaime Wheeler; juniors Brenna Alley, Karl Alamo, Chris Groneng and Nichole LaBrecque; and senior Austin Crocker.

The team is being coached by Don Strout, now in his 14th year of coaching. Helping him is his wife, Linda, and volunteer Cindy Young.

“We are so lucky to have Cindy helping us,” Linda Strout said. “She's coached teams before and is a huge asset to the team.”

Three of the swimmers on the team this year, Nicole LaBrecque, Samantha Carter and Brad Tibbetts, competed last year on the Wiscasset High School/Lincoln Academy swim team since there wasn't enough interest in Boothbay.

“These kids deserve a lot of credit for making this happen,” Don Strout said. “They demonstrated to the school board, to everyone, that there was an interest in having a swim team. Swimming is coming back.”

The team practices five days a week at the Boothbay Region YMCA. A bus comes down from Lincoln Academy every practice, allowing the team from Wiscasset/Lincoln Acadmey to practice with the Boothbay team.

“I didn't compete last year, because I didn't want to have to travel,” junior Brenna Alley said. “I've competed for four years with the Y Dolphins and I'm really excited we have a school team this year.”

At practice on November 20, Young worked with the less experienced swimmers to bring them up to the level of those that have swum competitively, while Don Strout ran the rest of the team through drills.

“One of the kids said I was too easy on them at the first practice, so I'm running them a bit harder today,” Don Strout said. “When you swim, you have to put your whole self into it. It's not just arms or legs, it's everything. There is a lot of technique involved.”