While Hillsdale College has not had a men’s swim team in a decade, a new men’s swim club was just started here on campus.
About four or five members now meet for an hour Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m. to swim laps. The official practices began Sept. 26.
The club was started by junior Doug Williams, who said he thinks “it’s kind of lame” Hillsdale doesn’t have a men’s swim team.
“[The club will] just give guys an opportunity to be able to swim,” Williams said. “I know I had fun with it, and I hope other people will get involved and start to enjoy it too.”
Williams began thinking about starting a men’s club swim team on campus last year.
“[Evan Gensler] and I, talked about it early on and we said ‘Hey, we should start a club team.’ We threw the idea around but we never did anything about it.”
This year, however, Williams, with the help of Gensler, is determined to get the club swimming program started.
“[The club’s purpose is to] provide a resource for anyone with any interest whatsoever because the girls have a swim team, but the guys really have no access to a more in-depth swimming experience,” Gensler said. “No pun intended.”
The process of founding took around a month to complete Williams said. A constitution and bylaws were put together to create the club — and that included weeks’ worth of paperwork.
“I was keeping in mind what I wanted to do,” Williams said. “Maybe the paperwork sucks but you got to get through it.”
Being a club swim team, the members also have no official coach to oversee the program, and therefore, are completely in control of the program themselves.
“Swimmers with experience [will] help other people out with learning how to swim,” Gensler said. “Right now it’s just Doug and I and a few others that kind of help other people out with their strokes.”
This atmosphere of working with others and helping each other out has drawn many students towards the program, freshman Jeffrey Meyers said.
“I understand that they know more [about technique] than I do,” said Meyers, who only swam for a year in high school. “It’s helpful because then it’s not a weird authority figure kind of position where I’m like terrified of them: it’s like this is my friend, and he’s trying to help me out kind of thing.”
As the new team emerges Williams and Evans both said they hope to grow in numbers.
“If we show people that we want to help them be better swimmers and faster swimmers,” Meyers said, “then I think we could have the potential for a lot of guys to join.”
The club members said they encourage all types of men, no matter their swimming experience, to try out the club if they are interested and are up for a challenge.
“We are going to have all levels and try to work with people at whatever level they are at,” Williams said.
With the completion of the club registration, Williams said he looks forward to sharing his love for swimming with others and helping others improve in the sport.
“We feel like we have a purpose,” Williams said. “It’s taken a while now to really get it going, but now that it is really going to happen within the next few days, we are really happy that we finally got it done.”