East Meck’s swim and drive team can be found anywhere but on campus. We see them posted with medals on Instagram, but never in person. East Meck’s swim and dive team, the renowned “hidden sport” of east, is rarely ever talked about. When it is, the conversations only skim the surface. From unknown partnerships to the admin “student” section, the East Neck swim and dive team has a lot more to it than people know.

Dive often trains and competes 30 minutes away at the Huntersville Aquatic Center, while swim practice takes place 20-45 minutes away at Palisades or Providence High School. Despite this, they represent a single team.

“We do try to integrate [swim] with diving, like a team breakfast and doing stuff like that together. But they are kind of a little bit separate, which I wish they weren’t,” Jennifer Degan, the head coach of East Meck swim, said.

The primary reason why dive is separated from swim is because they don’t practice or compete in the same locations. There isn’t a dive coach in the school district, so they employ one through the Huntersville Aquatic Center.

However, dive is not the only one with a partnership. East Meck’s swim team is partnered with Independence High School’s team: they share buses, pool lanes and coaches.

When Independence’s swim coach left a few years ago, they were desperate to find a coach in time for the upcoming season, so the athletic director at the time asked the Independence cross country coach to run it. Because the coach had never taught swimming before and didn’t know much about the sport in general, Degan decided to step in to help coach.

During a typical swim meet, each school is allowed four lanes to swim. To maximize the efficiency of the meets, the Independence and East Meck teams share pool lanes, mixing swimmers in each one. Because their meets are often at the same place, both teams usually share buses to and from the meets. The collaboration makes the season more efficient for both parties.

Senior swimmer Tate Alexander comments on the collaboration between Independence and East Meck’s swim team. “It creates a good bonding experience,” Alexander said.

Even though the teams are partnered, there is an absence of support and student attendance at the swim and dive meets. “I think that it’s lacking. I think people don’t even realize that we have a swim team,” Degan said.

Swim and dive is not typically seen as a “team sport” due to their individualism. Athletes are competing for their own time and often against their own teammates. “It does get individual when you’re up on the swim blocks, or you’re in the water, but you just have to realize that the work you put in is not by yourself: it’s with other people,” Alexander said.

With long travel distances, isolation from the school and the individualistic aspect of the sports, swim and dive can be considered a lonely sport that lacks school spirit, but the athletes view it differently. It’s a community of friends and like-minded people who share the same goals and push each other to become better athletes and people.

“We all support each other. So we kind of have our own student section in a way within the team,” Alexander said.