Freshman Donna Blaum proved to be an important member of the Panther swim team during her first season of high school competition. Blaum was the only freshman girl to qualify to compete at state meet, which was held Feb. 6-8 at Georgia Tech.

At state, the boys competed against swimmers from 43 other schools, and the girls from 44.  The boys finished ninth overall and the girls 13th. Blaum placed third in the girls’ 50 yard freestyle and in the 100 yard butterfly.  Junior Johanna Goldblatt tied for sixth in the girls’ 100 yard backstroke.

The boys’ 400 yard freestyle relay group, consisting of seniors Robbie Scott and Austin Palmer, junior John Michael Hall, and sophomore Junhan Lee, placed sixth in a heated competition. They also placed seventh in the 200 yard medley relay. Scott placed seventh in the boys’ 100 yard backstroke,  and Hall finished ninth and Palmer 10th in the 200 yard individual medley.

The Panthers do not have a dive team, which “hinders our overall performance,” according to Kali Gatlin, one of the two new swim coaches. “Diving is split into two events, boys and girls, and it contributes  more than 30 points to the total score.”  This puts her team at a disadvantage. Inevitably, a “school with a dive team will rank higher than those who do not have one,” Gatlin said.

The swim team had a successful season. The Panthers welcomed Gatlin, a Social Studies teacher,  and Math teacher  Derek Abrams. They replaced five-year head coach Rebecca Rickeard and the boys coach  Ben Williams. Gatlin and Abrams, who are also first-year teachers, dove into the task of coaching a sport they were both unfamiliar with.

“I was excited about being a part of a new sport,” Abrams said. “The only time I swam in the past was with friends. I just kept an open mind and was willing to learn.”

 At their first meet of the season, the Wildcat Invitational,  the Panthers qualified for state in 11 individual and six relay events. They placed first in the boys’ and girls’ 200 yard medley relay and in the boys’ 200 yard freestyle relay.  Nick Palmer, Austin Palmer, Hall, Lee, Scott, Goldblatt, and Blaum took first, second, or third in one or more of their individual events.

To the coaches’ excitement and perhaps relief, the Panthers took first place for the 14th consecutive year at the county meet in January.  This victory meant quite a bit to the veterans on the team, but it was not the only highlight of their season.

Meet after meet, the Panthers dominated the scoreboard  in many events, often taking the top three spots. They finished in first place in 15 out of 22 events at their dual meet against McIntosh.

Goldblatt, who has been swimming for the Panthers for three years, has greatly improved her times and rankings as the seasons progressed. She set the school record for the girls’ 100 yard back stroke with a time of 57.17 seconds this season. She said that she  is “looking to swim at an Ivy League school.”

Blaum said she is “always really nervous'” when preparing for her events, so she listens  “to music and stretches to calm” herself.  In spite of any nervousness, Blaum posted some of the fastest times on the team throughout the season. She placed second in two individual events during the season and first at least 10 times. As she walks away from her first high school swim season, Blaum said that the “feeling of accomplishment it gave her” was by far her favorite aspect of swimming for Starr’s Mill.

Blaum, who has been a member of Southern Crescent Aquatics Team for the last four years, said she enjoyed being a part of both teams and plans to continue swimming throughout high school and possibly in college.

The new coaches had opportunities to bond with the swimmers outside of practice. Gatlin recalled some of her favorite moments from her first season. “I enjoyed the team dinners during the week before meets. I also got pushed into the pool at an after-school practice. I would’ve killed someone if it was before school. That would make me so mad,” she said.

Gatlin won’t be returning as a coach or a teacher next year.  She decided to take a full-time nanny position in Charleston, S.C.

“I wanted to branch out of Fayette,” said Gatlin, who graduated from SMHS.  When asked if she might return to teaching some day, she said it is “definitely something I’ll think about in the future. I don’t know, it depends where I am at that point.”

Even though she taught for one year, she said she will “miss being here around the people and members of the swim team.”  Even though the team will have to find another coach, Gatlin believes that the team has “solid support with the community coaches and [will] carry on the tradition of Starr’s Mill.”