Last Friday, as sports and activities at Des Moines Public Schools remained on hold for being non-compliant with pandemic education mandates, players from the five high school football teams took matters into their own hands by organizing a city-wide 7-on-7 touch football championship.
This week, it was a different kind of “Friday night lights” as three of the high school girls’ swim teams – East, Lincoln and Roosevelt – took to the waters of the Wellmark YMCA.
The pool at the Y has hosted some of the world’s top swimmers in recent years. Lately it has also become a new home pool for swim teams shut out of their own high school natatoriums. Many of the East, Lincoln and Roosevelt swimmers joined the Y’s Marlins program to stay in shape. Friday night’s event was a time trial to hone and test their skills. Each swimmer was allowed two guests, so families and friends were masked up and scattered throughout the bleachers, providing long overdue cheers and support to the athletes.
As Tricia Drake, a Roosevelt parent who helped to organized the event, noted: “With the season interrupted, DMPS high school girls’ swim teams were like fish out of water … Now more than ever they are craving the camaraderie, accountability, confidence and memories that swimming brings.”
As DMPS implements a plan to comply with state mandates, the swim teams are expected to be able to complete at the high school regional meets on November 7.
