Swim Season Recap

Jeff has been too exhausted to write about the swim team, and our local paper has not stepped up to report on the team's progress all winter, I took matters into my own hands and wrote a swim season recap last weekend. It was weird tempering my snark in order to focus on the theme of overcoming barriers, so I felt like my writing was a little off, but this is what I came up with. 

Sunnyside High School Boys' Swim 2026 Recap

The SHS boys swim team overcame massive barriers this season. At the HS pep rally on Thursday, Feb 12th, Coach Jeff White painted a picture of the season: "Imagine being on a basketball team without a court or hoop. Imagine practicing for a wrestling tournament in a parking lot. That is how our swim season was without a pool. But we still broke seven school records, and two adaptive swimmers qualified for state!"

The SHS boys swim team got to practice in a pool just four times in the entire season, all of which were way back at the beginning of the season in December. The 20 yard 2 lane LVFC pool only functioned for 3 practices.

The boys got to do one other pool practice with Eastmont's team in Wenatchee when Sunnyside showed up for a meet there that had been cancelled. Nobody told Sunnyside that the meet had been cancelled, so Coach Jeff White asked for permission to at least practice with the Eastmont team that day, and Eastmont graciously agreed. This was back in December. Our boys never got to have another swim practice in a pool for the rest of the season. 

Instead, they did dry land practice in a barn, lifting weights and holding bungees to "swim" while lying on benches. Coach White cobbled together two inventions to help the boys get more of a swimming experience without a pool: using pulleys, paracord, and two-by-fours, and referring to pictures online, he made a row of upgraded dry swim machines that were more effective than the bungees alone. 

When he noticed that the team's flip turns were suffering without a pool to practice in, he created a place to practice the flip turns indoors. He arranged foam plyo boxes in a row, braced with weights to keep them together, with a gap between two boxes and a medicine ball at the end of the row. Swimmers laid on their stomachs on the boxes, put their head in the gap, and practiced flipping over to their backs and kicking the med ball, to replicate the motion of flipping over in the water and kicking off the wall. 

In addition to these contraptions, the boys lifted weights, ran speed and cardio workouts on the track, and did lots of plyometrics. It took flexibility to keep team morale up. One memorable practice, a few boys started playing duck duck goose in the grass outside. As the rest of the team saw their game from the barn windows, more and more boys ran outside to join the fun. Coach White decided that duck duck goose was definitely a plyometric exercise, and the kids played their game for the last half hour of practice, while the sunset glowed in the background. You don't need a pool to make memories like that. 

A pool would have helped a whole lot, though!

In spite of the lack of a pool, the team broke seven school records! The boys swam with raw weight room strength rather than technique, and pure grit over form. Meets were a treat because they actually got to swim in water! During the team's allotted warm-up time at meets, Coach White could be seen in the water with the boys, teaching the new swimmers how to swim and coaching the returning swimmers' form. 

The district swim meet prelims were scheduled for Thursday, February 5th at Moses Lake High School. When the Sunnyside bus arrived, however, they learned that the pool facility was out of commission, and the district meet was postponed indefinitely. The bus turned around and drove back to Sunnyside. 

The district swim meet prelims and finals were combined into one meet at Wenatchee HS on Wednesday, Feb 11th. The Wenatchee pool deck has minimal room for spectators, so they set up a YouTube live stream of the meet. Spectators and swim teams were seated in the nearby gym with the live stream, while swimmers were called to the pool for their events. (Parents of swimmers were allowed to go to the pool and watch their child swim live before heading back to the gym.)

At the district meet, Sunnyside swimmers Salomon Cano and Isaiah Galvan qualified for the state swim meet in the adaptive 50 freestyle. 

The Big 9 League voted Coach Jeff White as Coach of the Year, a title which is traditionally given to the coach of the most state qualifiers. In keeping with that tradition, Wenatchee's head swim coach was also voted coach of the year. The fact that Coach White was also voted as Swim Coach of the Year by the other coaches is a testament to his resilience, patience, strength, and good nature that he transfers to his team at every practice. 

As Yakima resident John Whitney wrote in the Yakima Herald-Republic two weeks ago, "There is no other team in this state with more heart than the Sunnyside swim team."

School records from the 2025-2026 swim season

50 Freestyle: Noah Wise 26.83

200 Freestyle: Noah Wise 2:16.40

200 Freestyle Relay: Ian Anderson, Ignacio Peralta, Ricardo Mondragon, & Aksel Curfman 1:52.34

400 Freestyle Relay: Ignacio Peralta, Jay White, Ian Anderson, & Noah Wise 4:20.19

200 Individual Medley: Noah Wise 2:42.52

100 Freestyle: Noah Wise 1:00.06

100 Backstroke: Noah Wise 1:13.62

I sent this to our local paper along with several pictures, and they used the info to write a new article:

I did get credited for the picture! "photo courtesy Shaina White"

Last week (Feb 16-21) was the final week of the swim season, and guess what?? The fitness club pool was fixed and open for swimming! Jay and his buddy Noah went to practice to get some swimming in and to help get our adaptive swimmers Sal and Isaiah ready for the state meet. They swam in a pool at practice FOUR DAYS IN A ROW, doubling their total pool practices for the season during the final week. Jay came home every day glowing, with a huge smile on his face. He love swimming! Jeff also came home from practice super happy every day. "Swimming is good for the soul," he told me. He was able to help Sal overcome his fear of diving, and taught him how to dive off the edge of the pool. Sal had a hard time starting races all season because he never got to practice diving. He would stand on the edge of the pool after the race started, trying to force himself to jump in. It was heartbreaking how frustrated he would get, because all he needed was practice that he couldn't get without a pool. The minute he had access to a pool for just four days of practice, he was able to learn how to dive!

The adaptive races at the state swim meet were on Saturday, February 21st. Jeff drove a school van with our two adaptive swimmers, Sal and Isaiah, along with Jay and teammate Noah to the Seattle area on Friday. They stayed in a hotel Friday night. Jay and Noah served as companions to help Sal and Isaiah navigate the large aquatic center and get to their starting blocks on time. The big 50 yard freestyle race was on Saturday morning. Sal got a 15 second PR and broke 60 seconds for the first time, finishing in 58.76! Isaiah beat his nemesis and swam a 48.45! Jeff was happy, the boys were happy. They stuck around at the meet for a bit and watched some of the finals for the fastest swimmers in the state. They got home a little bit before 4pm on Saturday afternoon. 

The start of heat one of two of the state adaptive 50 freestyle race! Sal is in lane 7 (last guy on the right), and Isaiah is in lane 5.

Good job, Sal and Isaiah!!

Because endings make me nostalgic, here's a brief photo album from the 2025-2026 boys swim season:

The team t-shirts that ended up being ironic due to our lack of a practice pool.

Swimming in the barn with the new homemade pulley swim trainers.

Jay, doing a dryland flip turn.

Recognition in the Yakima Herald.

My best picture of Jay during the Yakima Valley Swim Championships.

Jay again!

Jay with some teammates at a meet in Walla Walla.

The golden sunset game of duck duck goose at swim practice in December. One of my favorite memories from this insane swim season.

February 16th: first practice back in a pool since early December!

THE SWIM AWARDS BANQUET

We held the awards potluck banquet in the barn on Tuesday, February 17th. Before the banquet started, the swim team captain, Axel, got up front and said "I wanted to say this because I know Coach White won't mention it. Coach White is Coach of the Year in our league. He put in so much work planning practices for us without a pool, and he even built these things for us to practice swimming with. We are so thankful for all of his hard work." I paraphrased his kind words, but the barn exploded in applause for beloved Coach White and I felt so happy for him.

The boys then proceeded to raise the barn roof with loud whoops and cheers every single time Jeff read the name of a teammate. There were 30+ kids on the team. Then the managers Rose, Kennedy, and Jimena got up front to present the traditional managers' roast awards. Jay got "most school records stolen from him", to great applause and laughter. They even awarded Jeff a certificate with "most back hair". The managers gave each other awards too. Rose was "longest time spent being sick". It was a happy family kind of night. The swim team boys brought their same optimistic, brotherly energy to the awards night and shared it around with lots of applause and cheers. I felt so proud of all of them, including/especially Jeff. 

Jeff read the "big 3" boys' names off together: Jay, Noah, and Axel. They are the powerhouse core of the team. The only reason Jeff didn't announce the fourth man in that group, Ian, with theirs was because Ian is a senior, so he got his own speech from his coach. I tried not to think about how this banquet will feel next year when Jay is a senior.

Jay, hugging his buddy and team captain, Axel.

Managers Jimena, Rose, and Kennedy, roasting--I mean awarding-- the team. All three of these girls have brothers on the team.

Our coaches' wall of fame in the barn is growing! It's a work in progress, but before the swim banquet, I printed off a few college pictures from our SVU days, and framed a newspaper clipping of Jeff from his high school cross country years. We also have pictures from the 71-year-old Dans: Coach Winger competing in his heyday, as well as Coach Dad (Jeff's dad, Dan White) competing at Penn State in the 1970s.

I asked Jeff to pose with his Coach of the Year certificate. While I was working on the coaches' wall of fame in the barn, I asked Jeff if he had the certificate from the 2023 cross country season when he was XC coach of the year. He said they never gave him one. Then he said "you never got yours last year either!" Huh? "You were voted assistant coach of the year last cross country season!" he reminded me. I had totally forgotten! Haha. I guess our athletic department doesn't feel the need to give lowly cross country coaches certificates of recognition.

When Jeff got home from the state swim meet on Saturday afternoon, he admitted to feeling a little discouraged. When I asked why, he said "no matter what we do, even if we get a reliable pool, we will never be able to compete with those swimmers in the state finals. We could qualify a kid or two for state every now and then, but they will never advance past the prelims at state because we don't have a swim club with good coaching year-round, so our boys will always be at a disadvantage to the kids who have been swimming club year round since the age of 6." 

"But that's not as important as how many kids you have taught to swim, and how many amazing memories you give these kids. I guarantee you that the best, happiest memories of these boys' entire high school career will be from swim practice with you," I told him.

"I know," Jeff replied. "But still, I'm a competitive guy, so it's hard to be at that disadvantage. But I have saved dozens of lives by teaching all of these boys how to swim." 

TRUE.

I love Jeff.