At a swimming meet last Friday at St. Joseph’s College, a chorus of over 40 Windham swimmers could be heard chanting “ca-caw, ca-caw!” Soon, the parents of those swimmers were up out of their seats and joining in too. Though it wasn’t likely doing much to intimidate the opposing team, it did show the unity that has grown among the members of the Windham swim team over the past few years.

The group of senior leaders on the Eagles swim team admit that they are not sure if their chant is the true call of an eagle, but they say there’s no turning back now. The chant has grown on them just as quickly as the sport of swimming has grown on the town of Windham in the past four years.

This year’s senior class is the same group of five swimmers who started the program with a couple juniors just four years ago. They say that those early years were difficult just to get the program off the ground.

“The other sports teams and the athletic director didn’t help us out too much at first, so we had to do our own fundraising and get it going ourselves,” says Jake Shoberg. “Even sophomore year we were still funded by our parents, and a lot of kids didn’t join because they didn’t want to pay $250 to swim.”

The first two years, the team was unable to secure funding from Windham’s booster program, and had to scrape together money just to stay in the pool. Kimberly Sundquist remembers a few fundraisers at a local Shaw’s during the winter as they tried to raise funds for their program.

“We were just standing outside shivering and basically begging people for money straight up,” says Sundquist.

The team practiced at Riverton Pool in Portland their first year, before moving to St. Joe’s. Those practices were the first true test of dedication for the group of young swimmers, as they arranged carpools from Windham and at times didn’t get home until close to midnight.

A strong desire to see the program through made them stick with it though, and that has helped grow the team to what it is today. Looking back at their early years in the pool during middle school, these seniors remember how quickly the sport grew on them.

“My first year of swimming I would only do breaststroke,” says Bryndon Page. “They wouldn’t put me in anything else because they were afraid I would quit.”

“But it grew on me and now I can’t live without it,” says Page. The rest of his senior teammates echo that passion for the sport they have all grown to love.

Besides their love for swimming, the team has also been helped greatly by their current coach Peter Small, who started with them in eighth grade. At Windham’s meets, Small can easily be spotted cheering his team on from the side of the pool with an energy that few coaches display.

“He’s easily the best coach any of us have ever had,” says Jessica Morrill. “This program wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is without him.”

Small coached for a number of years in South Portland, and the swimmers say that his connections to the local swimming community have helped them get recognized quickly.

“He really fights for us to get noticed a lot more than other coaches would,” says Sundquist.

Small is quick to push the spotlight back on his swimmers though, saying that he couldn’t imagine having a program evolve any better than his team has.

“Any coach would have a script of how they’d want things to go in regards to conduct and character, workouts, everything,” says Small. “Having those five buy into it and be really tight knit, and every year they’ve become greater leaders.”

Small says that the help of upperclassmen Amanda Butler and Shayna Strumph those first couple years helped move the younger swimmers along too.

“It was this wonderful mix of people who had swimming backgrounds and a couple of real social leaders that could help build confidence and carry things through,” says Small.

The team has grown quickly both in size and in success. With their quick rise in the pool, they are finding that some of that early hesitance from the local community and other students at the school has worn off.

“I think we’re starting to get respected more. Other teams from the school have come and used the pool and they’re breathing heavy and they haven’t done half of what we do,” says Kirstein Russell.

Last year, the girls team placed third at Southwesterns, a result that surprised some of the swimmers as well as Small. That success has continued through into this year as well though, with the boys posting a 7-1 record so far. The girls have had a tougher road with a more competitive league this year, but have managed a 4-4 record this winter.

Small says that he sees a bright future for the program and is often approached by younger students in the hallways of Windham who are looking to join up next season. He says that the success of his team, as well as other athletic teams at the school, is catching on and making kids want to be involved.

“I think they see the excitement and energy that these kids have, and I think that our success breeds success,” says Small.

Even with the founders of the program leaving after this season, it seems the sport of swimming is here to stay at Windham. If you need any proof next year, just head over to St. Joe’s and keep your ears open for that now infamous “ca-caw!”