Marist swim and dive brings home two trophies
ATLANTA (BVM) — The Marist School swim and dive teams are unique. Both boys and girls are coached by one man, Chris Marshall, who also coaches the middle school team. Their practices are intertwined, as their eight-lane school pool doesn’t offer quite enough space or time to get the teams in on separate occasions. This same problem means that sometimes, instead of swimming, they’ll cross-train elsewhere.
But unique circumstances are part of the reason why both the boys and girls swim and dive teams are the 4-5A 2021 GHSA state champions.
In this year’s state meet, the girls team finished first with a total of 325 points; with a slim margin of victory at just two points ahead of the runner-up. The boys team totaled 321 points in its first place finish, a whopping 37 points ahead of the runner-up.
With both teams taking home gold, Coach Marshall looked at his running of both programs as a benefit to them as a whole. Being together throughout the entirety of the season helped build a collective sense of camaraderie for the athletes.
“It gives them a perspective of what the other side needs or wants, the girls are more cheerleaders, the boys are more chest bumps,” Marshall said. “It’s good to mix some of that together.”
And when their high school seasons come to a draw, having that middle school program under his control is another added bonus. He’s able to reflect on the year, evaluate what will be needed moving forward, and identify how the incoming ninth graders will be able to help them in those pursuits.
Another residual effect of their team-building expertise happens to be selfless athletes. Marshall says that despite their individual placements, all of his swimmers and divers understood the ultimate goal: a state championship. Their minds were set on the bigger picture.
“Every position matters, every place that you get matters whether it’s coming down between 10th and 11th or talking about the difference between first and second,” Marshall said. “You just have to go out and do your best…we have a small team of seven girls and seven boys so we were a pretty tight little team focused on the task at hand.”
For the boys, this was their second consecutive state championship, so last year’s experience certainly helped them prepare for this season. Having been to the highest level of state swim and dive helped them understand what it would take to repeat. Marshall says that because of some strong leadership from previous seniors, this year’s team still had “hunger and fire in their bellies.”
But for the girls, last year didn’t finish quite the way they wanted. They were slated to have a strong season, and while they did finish in the top three, a couple of errors cost them first place. They knew they were within reach of a state title, so that extra motivation this season put them over the top.
While the boys’ previous championship involvement helped them repeat, for the girls, coming up short proved to be the catalyst this season.
“They were motivated…they went into the meet pretty focused on erasing the demons and ghosts of the past to come out with a state title.” Marshall said.
Until next year, the War Eagles can call themselves champions. But when the season rolls around, it’ll be business as usual. That’s how you construct a program that, since 2000, has had 11 state titles between the boys and girls teams.
“You just have to evaluate year over year, I think that’s what most successful programs do. You don’t look back…you look forward to see what the future holds,” Marshall said. “Having everybody buy into the ultimate year end goal of winning a team title.”
