THE SUMMIT: "Women’s Swimming Team Getting Their 'Feet Wet'"

By Desmond Bernal
The Summit

Stonehill is getting its "feet wet" with the addition of women's swimming to the varsity athletics program.

"We always look for new opportunities for student-athletes – since swimming is a Northeast-10 sport and one we don't offer one, we wanted to add swimming," Director of Athletics Dean O'Keefe said.

The addition of the women's swimming team was announced in September 2019 and with that came the search for a head coach of the team.

The department hired Caleb Potvin as the women's swimming team's first head coach. Potvin has some experience with the Northeast-10 Conference. He is a 2012 graduate of Saint Michael's College which is among the schools to compete in the Northeast-10 Conference.

"He swam at Saint Michael's and knows what the conference is like – he has been quickly embraced in what Stonehill is about and the mission," O'Keefe said when explaining the choice to hire Potvin as head coach.

Potvin has been able to establish some coaching experience at the club level in his home state, Vermont. As well as some collegiate experience, volunteering with the men's and women's swimming teams at Texas A&M.

The volunteer experience with Texas A&M is what sparked an interest to move from coaching at the club level to the collegiate level. Potvin said he enjoyed the one-on-one with athletes working with their times and offering them his insights.

"It was really exciting to work with high-level athletes and to see they were responsive to my style of coaching and taking my feedback. I was like this is something I definitely want to explore and pursue," Potvin said.

With the addition of a new varsity team comes the question where are the athletes going to practice? Stonehill doesn't have a pool on campus for its athletes or even students, faculty, and staff to use. The next option became looking for options off-campus.

Coach Potvin (left) goes over instruction at a recent training session (PHOTO BY Desmond Bernal)

Stonehill has a good relationship with Massasoit Community College and Massasoit was open to the swimming team to swim there, Dean O'Keefe said.

The team planned to practice at the Peter Asiaf Fieldhouse pool at Massasoit, but due to COVID-19, that college is fully remote, forcing the team to find another place to practice. Temporarily, the team is now using the pool at the Old Colony YMCA in Taunton.

"The YMCA has been great, they opened their arms and allowed it to feel like a home away from home," Potvin said.

The women's swimming practices four days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday) a week from 6:30 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. For athletes on campus, it is about a 22-minute commute from Stonehill to the Old Colony YMCA in Taunton.

Potvin's main goal is establishing a team identity of the program and how they are going to present themselves.

"He wanted to base people off of their character instead of their times they had," freshman Sydney Stockwell said.

Potvin calls the identity being built "Swamily"

It focuses on the characteristics of a good teammate and this aspect of treating one another as a family

"To me, "swamily" is obviously what it sounds like - swim and family," sophomore Maggie Timmoney said. "So, we are trying to build a family on how well we swim and being super inclusive to anyone who is involved with swimming or wants to compete."

The women's swimming team consists of five freshmen and two sophomores. For all athletes, this a new experience being a part of a varsity team.

One thing that is not new to the athletes is the experience and competition with the sport.

"This is not new to us, I have been coaching for over eleven years - they have been swimming most of them since they've been young," Potvin said. "We know what we are doing and we will have a good program."

The Women's Swimming team is approaching the new season carefully, building the program slowly.

"Year one the priority is to make improvements, get better, and build the culture we want," Potvin said.