Having quality depth and numbers is a must in any sport. The more athletes that want to be involved in a program provide a real chance for that program to succeed.

In most cases, more numbers means more competition.

Despite graduating 11 seniors, the 2018-19 Tamaqua swim team has strength in numbers. With 15 girls swimmers and 18 boys swimmers, the Raiders swimming squad is looking to build off the exceptional number of athletes interested in the program.

“After losing all the seniors we did, I was worried that our numbers were going to dwindle a bit, but actually we have really good numbers, some of the best numbers in the league,” said head coach Jennifer Paisley. “We have a lot of kids that came out that are either swimming for the first time or that were involved in swimming when they were younger, took a break, and are now getting back into it.

“Our numbers are great which makes for a great, competitive atmosphere at practice.”

Competing is just what the Raiders swimmers will be looking to do, especially on the girls side. The Tamaqua girls’ swimmers put together a nice 2017-18 campaign, going 8-2 in Schuylkill League competition with both losses coming to perennial power Blue Mountain.

The Raider girls will be looking for their experience to push them along the same path they went down last season. It’s a cohesive and talented group.

Seniors Sarah Maue and Kayla Sherry return after qualifying for districts a season ago. Brianna Dumond, Madelyn Jones and Logan Hartney are all expected to have solid seasons as well for the Raiders. Sophomore Tressa Barron is looking to build off her spectacular freshman season on the diving board where she took home Schuylkill League gold.

“These girls have mostly all come up through the youth ranks together, they feed off each other, motivate each other and push each other,” said Paisley. “They seem to always be progressing and getting better. It really is a tight knit group and I think you’ll see that transfer over to the pool in competition.”

On the boys side, coach Paisley is dealing with a lot of newcomers to the sport. But with 18 swimmers on the roster, she’s excited about the potential of this squad.

“This is a group that I’m really excited about. Paisley said. “First of all, having the amount of swimmers that we do on the boys’ side is a definite advantage because that’s not the norm in our league to have as many male swimmers as we do. So that’s going to help us out at meets for sure. This group also likes to listen and they like to learn.”

“The goal for us will be to just get better and improve every meet. Right now, we’re working on the fundamentals and we won’t really know what we truly need to work on more until we start competing. Then we can go back to the drawing board and really hone our skill set.”

The boys’ team will be counting on seniors Billy Frederick and Billy Shilko to rack up the points for them this season from the diving board. Frederick took home the gold at the Schuylkill League Diving Championships last season, while Shilko earned the silver. Anthony Witczak will be a force in the sprinting events and Nathaniel Kovalchick will be counted on to make a difference in the distance swimming events. Chris Osenbach also returns and is expected to contribute.