The first practice of the 2008-2009 season for the Milford High School swim team brought out 16 students that had never swam before.

“I think it’s pretty amazing and very exciting that all those kids want to be part of the team,” first-year head coach Michele McKenzie said.

The first-time swimmers primarily were made up of freshman and sophomores, but there were a few upperclassmen mixed in as well. It also doesn’t count freshman and sophomores that have previous competitive swimming experience, but who are swimming for the high school team for the first time.

“I thought it would be interesting and I figured it would be fun and something cool to try,” freshman Scott Wolfe said.

After one practice, Wolfe is already hooked on the sport.

“It was awesome,” Wolfe said. “I loved it. I was surprised, because I didn’t think I would like it.

“It feels more welcoming. It feels like everyone’s equal. Just because you are big doesn’t mean you’ll be good in the water.”

Sophomore Katelyn Lewis said she joined the swim team because she wanted to get in shape for softball season, and is hoping to strengthen her knee, which gave her problems all last year while playing field hockey and softball.

Lewis said the first practice wasn’t bad at all.

“It was better than I thought it would be,” she said. “I thought it was going to be harder.”

Lewis said she was surprised with how many first time swimmers joined the sport this season.

“I didn’t think there would be so many new ones,” she said. “But I figured it was going to be a big team.”

McKenzie said that even though they are new to the sport, the first timers are going to be key for Milford’s success this season.

“It’s going to mean a lot at meets, since every place counts for points,” McKenzie said.

It also helped boost the morale of the experienced swimmers, who have seen the participation numbers drop, especially on the boys’ team, over the past few seasons.

“We could definitely win a lot more swim meets now that we have a lot more people,” said sophomore Jordan Lingo, last season’s boys’ team MVP and a year-round swimmer. “I’m just glad so many are interested in swimming.”

While they will be important members of the team, McKenzie said the new swimmers would be brought along slowly. McKenzie, along with assistant coach Ashley Huber and volunteer assistant coach Pat McKenzie, will work with the swimmers on stroke mechanics and building skills for each of the four strokes – freestyle, butterfly, breastroke and backstroke.

“We are really just going to try to teach them the basics and find their strengths and weaknesses,” McKenzie said. “I expect they give me 100 percent effort, but there shouldn’t be any pressure on them.

“I hope they have a good time, learn some things and leave practice every day knowing they are a valuable part of the team.”

And as long as they stick with the sport, the new swimmers will eventually become the veterans, and will help the MHS swim program continue to be competitive with the likes of Seaford, Caesar Rodney and Cape Henlopen, Milford’s biggest swimming rivals.

“I think it will encourage more people to try our team will continue to grow,” McKenzie said. “It should make our team bigger in the coming years.”

Lingo is hoping all of the new swimmers decided to stick with the sport, and said they shouldn’t worry yet about how fast or slow they are.

“They just need to focus on technique now,” Lingo said. “Endurance comes with a lot of swimming, so they’ll be able to swim longer the more they practice.”

Both Lewis and Wolfe are just aiming to see a positive difference in their swimming by the end of the season.

“My goal is to make it through the season and just continue to improve,” Wolfe said.