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Swimming Coach Sees Splash Of New Talent

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By DAREK SHARP

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 17, 2008

PLANT CITY - New Durant swimming coach Julie Bishop figured that the performance of Michael Phelps at the Olympics might help the turnout for her team.

But the effect has been overflowing - in some cases literally.

More than three dozen are on the Cougars swim team roster, many of them first-time participants who were obviously motivated by watching Phelps' historical performance, one that coincided with the start of the high school season.

"It was unbelievable the amount of ninth graders that came out," Bishop said." We have 41 swimmers on the team, the most they've had here, and only six of them are seniors."

And while the enthusiasm has been wonderful there have been some resulting problems to deal with, such as squeezing 41 swimmers into two lanes of a pool. Sometimes Durant is limited to just using two lanes while practicing at its home venue, the Brandon Swim & Aquatic Center.

"Luckily it's a 50-meter pool but we have to end up splitting each lane in half," Bishop said. "On one side we'll work on starts and turns, then sprints on the other."

Fortunately for Bishop, she has a number of upperclassmen to help her make it through practice. Sarah Carlos and Erin Hofrichter for the girls team, and Eduard Bandi and Logan Butler for the boys, have been the Cougar leaders.

Hofrichter has been exemplary in a different way. Though her best event is the backstroke, Hofrichter has yet to swim it because she is needed to compete for the team in some of the tougher races such as the butterfly and the 500-meter freestyle.

Each swimmer is only allowed to compete in two individual races.

"She will swim the backstroke when it comes time for districts. She has really stepped up for us," Bishop said.

With so many new swimmers, much of this season will be devoted to finding out which strokes suit everyone. The early-season City Relays at the Bobby Hicks Pool in South Tampa provided a great opportunity.

"It was a lot more like the 'real thing' as far as meets go, as compared to just the dual meets we normally swim in. We were not even trying to score well, we were just building experience and letting them get to know each other," Bishop said.

Durant still managed an 11th-place finish out of 15 teams.

Bishop said she is trying to add meets to the Cougars' schedule. To begin the year, there were only five dual meets on the slate.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampatrib.com.

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