If the Bobcats were to rephrase Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” it would likely end up being “All I Want for Christmas is No Practice.”
While students finish their semester on any given day next week, the 24 swimmers and divers won’t be able to leave Athens until after their morning practice Dec. 21.
“On the same day finals are over, we will start our second training camp of the year,” Ohio coach Greg Werner said.
The Bobcats underwent the first training camp during Thanksgiving break, as they had unusual double sessions on Saturday and Sunday and were only allowed a 54-hour leave. This time, though, Werner is going to extend his measures, turning the holiday season into a practice season.
The number of daily practice hours will increase from four to six in addition to having 12 instead of nine practices a week
“We will break them down and then build them back up again,” Werner said.
He knows that a lot is on the line. The training camp is supposed to prime the Bobcats for the upcoming dual meets in January and February and in the long run for the Mid-American Conference championships.
The Bobcats have to sacrifice a lot for it. All swimmers are allowed a seven-day leave following the 21st, but have to be back in the pool on the night of Dec. 28th. In comparison, every other OU student has 36 days off. In addition, the swimmers have to continue to practice in their hometowns.
Still, the swimmers are glad about being able to leave. For some swimmers, it is the first time they will see their families again since summer.
“I did not go home over Thanksgiving,” junior Morgan Sprosty said. Her 54-hour Thanksgiving break didn’t give her any chance to fly back to Irvine, Cali.
“It was hard and I was very emotional,” Sprosty said. “It was the first time in 20 years I was not spending Thanksgiving with my family.”
Last year, all Bobcats were still able to go home but the change from quarters to semesters caused Werner to move some of his original winter training camp to Thanksgiving break.
Other swimmers don’t get the chance to leave. Junior Anastasia Bocharnikova won’t be able to go back to her hometown of Nizhny Tagil, Russia, this winter.
“The time is just too short,” she said earlier this year.
Werner, on the other side, says that the swimmers have a long break compared to other programs on campus. But he, too, admits that there will be physiological challenges ahead.
“Seeing your friends going home while you’re still here wears on you,” Werner said.
To counteract a negative effect on the team, Werner tells his Bobcats to support each other during the holiday seasons and asks Ohio residents to take other teammates home with them.
Still, Sprosty, who spent her Thanksgiving with teammate Emma Michaels in Findlay, Ohio, will never be able to get used to not being with her family during holiday season.
“Not being with the people who raised me, killed me this year,” she said. “As soon as I am with my parents again I will hug them and just spend time with them.”
And maybe Mariah Carey’s famous line “All I Want for Christmas is You” will sound through the radio.
am794811@ohiou.edu
