FALL PREVIEW: Park Hill Boys Swim/Dive

With more than 20 enthusiastic swimmers showing up for the first week of practice, Park Hill boys swim coach Karl Haley is pleased to head into 2012 with new Trojan swimmers to fill a number of vacant varsity spots. Park Hill only returns three of the seven state qualifiers from a 2011 team that finished second in conference and 30th at the state meet. They are hoping with more swimmers they’ll be able to score more points in competitions they were unable to last year.

“Last year we got second in conference with only 12 varsity swimmers, so we didn’t even have swimmers in some races, so we were giving away points with open spots,” Haley said.

The Trojans believe this season is a chance to re-establish where they want to set the bar, not only this year, but beyond with a number of new young swimmers coming into the program.

“We’ve got a lot of new faces this year,” Haley said. “It’s one of those things where you have to set the expectations for many of them. Hopefully, this will bring with it some new energy to the team that will push us over the top.”

Park Hill will rely heavily on the talent and experience of their three state qualifiers seniors Matt Wagner (200 free, 500 free, 100 backstroke) and Vince Tutorino (100 butterfly) along with sophomore Barry Chang (500 free). Haley also expects senior diver Joey Johnson to competitive strongly to qualify for state this season.

“Those guys have been around and we kind of expect them to show everyone else what to do,” Haley said. “We’ve got a good group with more numbers so we hope that works well.”

Strong swim programs wait in the Trojans’ new conference alignment with Lee’s Summit West and Park Hill South making it one of the most competitive conferences in the city. Possibly coming down to a three-way contest for first place, Haley believes depth could be a difference maker.

Park Hill jumps into the season with the South Rock Swim Invite on August 25th followed by hosting the Park Hill Invite September 15th.