The water is still rippling in the pool from last season, and Mount Carmel’s swim team knows that 2025-26 will not look the same as last year.
After graduating several seniors, the MC swim team enters its first meet on December 9 at Oak Park-River Forest High School. The team begins the winter season focused on development, improvement, and rebuilding. Swimmers and head coach Mr. Matthew McGuire believe that state is not the primary goal, but instead to help new swimmers and to achieve a personal best score.
Mr. McGuire, who has coached for twenty-seven years and is in his eleventh year with the Caravan, said the roster looks very different from last year.
“We graduated a lot of really good seniors last year,” he said. “Our team is on the newer side, which I hope to develop to be strong, to push us to continue to go forward.”
Mr. McGuire, a former swimmer himself, said his goal is to place athletes in the right events and push them at the appropriate level. Without last year’s experienced core, swimmers have already noticed the impact. Junior Gavyn Williams sees that the roster experience level has dropped.
“We lost three senior swimmers who were swimming basically since they were six,” he said. “So they are like fish, of course, we are worse without them.”
Even with the talent gap, the team has grown in size. Junior Nicolas Par Vicente said the expanded roster brings new possibilities.
“This year’s team is actually really big,” he said, referring to an increased number of swimmers on the team. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the new swimmers grow.”
For upperclassmen, the challenge is not just performance but leadership. Senior captain Adam Stanislawski, a four-year swimmer, said the new roster changes his role.
“It’s not about my performance, but I need to guide others,” he said. “If I’m cutting sets or if I’m doing whatever, I’m not doing my full effort because I don’t want to that day, other people are going to follow, but it’s also motivating to do better.”
Vicente thinks that despite the challenges of rebuilding the team, the group dynamic is healthy.
“It’s a balanced environment,” he said. “The seniors are good leaders, and everyone works hard.”
Swimming is one of the hardest sports, according to both the players and Mr. McGuire. Stanislawski described the practices as both physically and mentally draining.
“Swimming uses every muscle,” he said. “I go home, and like I literally can’t walk right now, but it is enjoyable.”
Mr. McGuire shared a story about how a wrestling kid messed up his ankle, and the coach wanted him to jump in the pool for a little bit and swim to stay in shape.
“He got in, and after like a day, he’s like, you guys are crazy,” he said. “Wrestlers, I think they’re crazy.”
The team practices in the MC’s on-campus pool, which was built around 1904. Its size and age are unique compared with other schools’ facilities.
“I’d love a new pool,” Williams said. “Especially one with a decent temperature, because it’s freezing outside.”
Others embrace the quirks of their current pool. Stanislawski described it as a motivating environment.
“It’s kind of funny having The Bathtub,” he said, referring to the pool by its nickname. “It’s like swimming in a dungeon at 6 a.m., it’s really artistic in a way.”
The team sees personal growth as the true measure of success. Stanislawski explained how individual improvement matters most in swimming.
“It’s about being a better version of yourself,” he said. “Whether or not someone makes state, personal progress is what swimming is really about.”
