“I’ve been doing it my entire life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

With practice four times a week, from 5:15 to 7 before school and 3:30 to 7 after school, Ryan Lehane, captain of Naperville Central’s varsity boys’ swim team, describes how he stays motivated in the pool.

“The goal at the end of it [is] to do well at the end of the season, to progress,” Lehane said. “If you fight through it, you’re working towards that goal that you set in the beginning of the year.”

Lehane, swimming since he was 5 years old, characterizes a good swimmer as someone who eats healthy, has determination to improve, is very organized and sets goals.

“It’s hard mentally because it’s an individual sport,” Lehane said. “Even though you’re on a team, you swim alone, and it’s really hard to stay focused and to do well at every meet.”

With the time commitment swimming requires, he stresses the importance of balancing sports with school and the difference of having prior experience in the sport versus none.

“With this sport it’s good to be experienced because you have more [skills] that you have learned over the years,” Lehane said. “But as a less experienced swimmer you get to learn all of those things, you have more to improve on.”

Central’s pool being divided into eight lanes allows swimmers with different skill sets and speeds to practice together in the same pool with others of their ability level, regardless of experience.

“If you put in a lot of hard work not only during the season but also in the off season, [new swimmers] can really make a lot of improvement and can get to the same level as people who have been swimming for 10 years or so,” varsity boys’ swimmer Christian Carrier said.

It’s recommended to swim for a couple of seasons before joining Central’s swim team, and the coaches will work with the swimmer to improve. Going to every practice is key to gaining muscle memory and improving one’s time.

“It uses every muscle in your body, [even if] you don’t realize it,” Lehane said. “If you are not training those muscles to do the same thing everyday, your end result will not be what you expected.”

Lehan recommends still swimming even if the athlete is not planning on doing it after high school as “if you learn to set goals in swimming, you’ll set goals in other places as well.”