To prepare for Swim Leagues at North Penn High School on February 13-14, swim team captains and coaches worked to boost team morale.
For the 2025-2026 season, several senior swimmers were elected as team captains to promote team connection.
According to assistant swim coach Megan Malmquist, the team captains, seniors Caroline Kelcy and Ryan Christie, help bring the team together.
“They rally the team together and can help swimmers have good energy,” Malmquist said.
“Their leadership really falls on organizing social events, keeping the energy up in the pool if somebody had a bad swim, and having the expertise to coach them through that,” Malmquist said.
For Malmquist, communication is important.
“The seniors do a lot of the social networking with the team, making sure everybody feels included … and can communicate with them if they’re not,” Malmquist said.
For Kelcy, the role of captain was about providing “advice” and “stability.”
Kelcy believes that being a strong leader of the team helped create a more supportive environment for the team.
“This year the team is so much more positive,” Kelcy said, “so you can rely on other people, so everybody will bring you up.”
Positivity is important to Kelcy’s team-building strategies.
“We would just have to make sure we’re always positive,” Kelcy said, “because what we say radiates onto other people’s energy.”
Kelcy said important meets, like leagues, are more pressure for her, but being around the “positive” team helps her deal with that stress.
Christie thinks being an experienced member of the team has helped him step into the leadership role of team captain.
“I was a little bit more seasoned than everyone else,” Christie said, “and I kind of already have been a leader the last couple of years. I feel like I was kind of a common face for the younger kids to see.”
According to Kelcy, the teams’ coaches also helped with motivating the swimmers and keeping morale high by being “very positive.”
“I think they’re really encouraging,” Kelcy said. “Even if we feel slow, they always tell us no you look fast, you’re going to do good, don’t let anything take you down, stay positive.”
Christie shared a similar experience.
“All the coaches really pushed me, especially my freshman year to get back on the horse, and it has just kept going from there,” Christie said.
According to Malmquist, the coaches have helped get the team prepared with more training this year.
“Coach Heather brought a lot of lifting into it, a lot more morning practices,” Malmquist said, “and so many kids decided to come to every single one of those.”
Both teams ended up placing higher in Leagues than in past years.
“The boys actually got second overall at districts as well, and the girls got fifth, which is both the highest placement they’ve had in at least 10 years,” Malmquist said.