Petaluma High swim success not measured by wins, losses

The 2016 Petaluma High School swim team finished the season with 1-4 league records for both boys and girls under first-year head coach Eric Hoffman, but the losing records are not the defining factor of the teams.

Hoffman called the season a success because rather than winning the league or placing first in every race or meet, he viewed it in terms of personal records and setting goals early and following through with them.

The new coach, a lot of beginning swimmers, and the loss of former seniors created what rising senior Owen Neufeld felt was like starting fresh. He and other experienced members, notably fellow junior Haley Joslin, worked with Hoffman to get into a routine. Neufeld said the coach has become “a very strong leader.”

Neufeld and Joslin, who swim year-round with Petaluma’s Aquaducks club, led the team with both experience and performance. They each received the MVP award from Hoffman at the team’s awards night, and have “consistently been outstanding,” said the coach.

The two are distance swimmers; each race in the 500-meter freestyle. Joslin achieved a personal record of 5 minutes, 45 seconds, while Neufeld’s best time for the event was 5:07. Joslin also swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:20.7, while Neufeld swam a 59.62 in the 100-meter butterfly. During Sonoma County League finals, they each took second in their respective 500-meter freestyle races, and Neufeld also placed second in the 100-meter butterfly.

The SCL finals marked the end of the season for the whole team. Joslin and Neufeld failed to qualify for North Coast Sectionals despite their second-place finishes. This is because an individual must hit a qualifying time to be considered for the NCS meet. Even then, there is a good chance that someone in consideration will not actually race at NCS.

Neufeld was one second off of the 5:06 consideration time for the 500-meter freestyle, but in order to secure a definite spot, he will need to bring his time down to 4:50. Making NCS has been a goal of his, and he has one more year to reach it. Owen acknowledged, “I have my work cut out for me.”

The lack of success in terms of winning meets and finishing at the top of league cannot be attributed to a lack of talent. There were 14 girls and 11 boys this year, which were just not enough to compete with some of the larger teams, explained Hoffman, who hopes for 20 on each side in the future. Teams score points with first- through fifth-place finishes at league meets, so more swimmers translates into more meet success.

“There’s strength in numbers in swimming. If we had had the same level of talent, but been able to fill every lane at every meet, we would have won (the majority) of our meets,” said Hoffman.

Of the 25 athletes, 15 were freshmen, a number that Hoffman is excited about. They will come back with experience, and there will be new recruitments to grow the team, and put it in a better position to contend in the future. Hoffman welcomes new members, no matter their level of experience.

“My goal is to make every swimmer into a four-stroke swimmer where they can swim any event,” he said. By the end of their high school careers, anyone can become a competent, confident swimmer, he explained.

Hoffman believes this can be accomplished because of the enthusiasm the Trojan swimmers brought to practice every day. The swimmers were encouraged to set goals at the beginning of the season, ranging from learning a new stroke to breaking a certain time, and they were good about sticking to them. Hoffman was proud of the work ethic and dedication, and claims that every swimmer improved “tremendously” over the course of the season.

What made his first year as a part of the PHS swim team family memorable was the team dynamic that emerged. The coach watched 25 individuals, many of whom did not know each other, become a team.