Last February, CHS Swim welcomed new JV coach Ariel Raudez to the team. This is her first year coaching swim and she hopes that by getting to know the swimmers and their strengths and weaknesses she will be able to help them achieve their goal of faster times in their events.

Raudez does not have any previous experience being a swim coach, but has been swimming since she was in the seventh grade and swam at Del Campo High School in Northern California during her high school years. Raudez also played water polo throughout high school. She is learning as much as she can from her fellow coaches, memorizing new exercises every day and making new ones herself. For example, she now incorporates 15 minutes of dryland training before every practice.

“I haven’t really made big changes. I’ve just been learning a lot about coaching because I have never coached before, so I’ve been doing a lot of listening and watching the other coaches,” Raudez said.

Raudez first started coaching this past November as the Freshman/Sophmore water polo coach for CHS. She wants to learn with and from the swimmers on her team and is not afraid to learn workouts and drills with the swimmers.

“She is really involved and sometimes she swims the sets with us. I have never had a coach who swam with us before. She is also very observant, if we finish a set with plenty of time to spare she shortens the time we have to finish the set,” freshman JV swimmer Victor Mora said.

Raudez plans to spread the ideas of a sense of dedication and what it means to be committed to the team, respect among all the swimmers, fun through more team-based activities, and not tolerating any disrespectful actions. She would like the team to cooperate as one, cohesive unit to achieve their individual goals together.

“Ariel is an amazing and understanding coach! I’ve had a lot of health issues this year and she has done anything she can to make it easier on me. She loves having us do dry land which consists of lots of leg work,” sophomore JV swimmer Justiss Smith said.

When swimmers gain a new coach, they need to get used to the different teaching style, and this process can take a long time. However, the JV team quickly adapted and they are now seeing an increase in their performance. Raudez hopes to get to know the swimmers more as the season progresses and help them achieve their goals for a faster time and beyond.