Sports are very important to most students who attend Ipswich High School and are used as a way to fit in with their peers.  Teenagers today experience a numerous amount of benefits from competing in sports in public schools, from developing important team building to honing physical and personal skills.  Athletes discover the challenges of both winning and losing as well. Football is one of the main sports at Ipswich High along with basketball, baseball, track, and lacrosse, but there are a few sports that get overlooked, for example swim team.  Not many people who go to school here even know we have a swim team.  Swim is a very intense sport and deserves just as much recognition as any other sport.

High school provides an overabundance of opportunities to stay busy academically, but to focus only on academics deprives you of the other side of high school, which is filled with jocks, cheerleaders, and other sports.  Athletics are an important part of high school, and though most students disregard the thought of sweat and hard work, others find pleasure in this competitive part of high school.  For many people, swim team seems like a distant sport, over looked by other sports.

For those who have never been to a swim meet or do not understand what goes on at a swim meet I will tell you.  Swim teams will generally compete against others; however, swim races are not just against one school.  On some occasions several schools will get together to have a meet and participants will compete against up to 7 others.  This is known as a dual meet, but usually it is just two schools who compete against each other.  Each swimmer will get a lane of their own to compete in and it is very important to stay in your lane or you could end up getting disqualified.  Swimming on a high school team, there are generally school records and records at individual conferences, for example at the state sectionals.  A swimmer’s main goal during a meet is to get or beat their best time.  With that comes the opportunity of breaking or setting new schools records.  Swimming is not only a team sport but an individual sport.  For example, records can be achieved at individual conferences, such as at the State Sectionals.