For many many years the boys’ swim team has had the tradition of bleaching their hair for sectionals. Whether it is for good luck or team bonding, this tradition continues. Everyone knows swimming sectionals are coming up when you see boys with bleached hair.  Team co-captain Grant Smith explained that “[His] dad did it [when he went to Seymour] but that was a while ago…everybody does it so I don’t think there was a specific beginning.”  Co-captain Larry Simons went on to say that the swim team bleached their hair for “team bonding…we met at the Proffer’s house and had fun.”  This tradition is one that strengthens the teams’ bond and pushes them towards success. 

Another followup to this tradition after sectionals is shaving all of their hair off. Smith explained that “Way back when, everybody did it.”  Now, only four swimmers have shaves: Ben Feldes, Simons, Smith, and Paul Montgomery. Although some swimmers did not decide to participate, the ones that did, do not regret it whatsoever. 

It has been shown that whenever your team is closest with each other and you are one unit, players perform better. Maybe long ago someone decided to, in a way, trick the boys’ swim team to think that it will help them perform better with bleached hair. However, all along it was so they would trust each other and work together to win sectionals. Simons said, when asked about the season as a whole, “I thought we did pretty well, better than what we could’ve done…12 wins 4 losses.” The boys’ swim ended up finishing second and Paul Montgomery made it to state in two events as well as securing his second school record. Congratulations, swimmers.