The James Logan Courier

By Denay Harris, Courier Staff Writer

As spring sports are beginning to roll around at James Logan, one of the most important of the upcoming spring sports involves the James Logan swim team. The Logan swim team consists of the Junior Varsity Girls team, the Junior Varsity Boys team, the Varsity Girls team and the Varsity Boys team.

Last season in the MVAL championships the varsity girls took sixth place, beating Kennedy, while American High School, Newark Memorial High School, Washington High School and Mission San Jose placed ahead, with Mission San Jose taking first. The varsity boys took fifth place, beating American High School and Kennedy High School, but were beaten by Newark Memorial High School, Irvington high school, Washington High School, and Mission San Jose.

In the Junior Varsity division, the boys took third place beating all except for Irvington and Mission San Jose. The Junior Varsity girls took fourth place winning against Kennedy High School, Newark Memorial High School and American High School. They were unfortunately unable to beat Washington High School, Irvington High School, and Mission San Jose High School.

The pool where Logan practices and meets take place is the Dan Oden Swim Complex, which is run by the school district, and the City of Union City. The complex is dedicated in memory
of a beloved swimming coach who died suddenly of skin cancer in the mid-90s.

As the records from last season's MVAL championships show, Mission San Jose is Logan's and everybody’s biggest opponent. Other big opponents are Newark memorial and American high school. These three schools are seen as Logan's biggest competition for this up coming swim season.

The James Logan Colts team puts in a lot of hard work with the help of their coaches. The head coach of the swim team is science teacher at James Logan High School, Mike Lockwood. He has been coaching with the swim team for ten years, and for the last three has been the head varsity coach. “I love it, and look forward to it” Lockwood said in reference to coaching and the upcoming season. Though Lockwood enjoys being the coach he also says that “it is a ton of work”.

Although all the James Logan swim team did well last season there are always things that can be done to improve their abilities. Coach Lockwood has plans for new techniques to help his swimmers improve in their strokes. The swim team will also will do a few fundraisers to help raise money for the season. The team has also begun pre-season meets against other teams that are not a part of the Mission Valley Athletic League. They have already swum against Livermore and plan to swim against Moreau Catholic High School this coming Friday. The team will face their biggest opponent, Mission San Jose High School on May 5th.

Though the swim team has lost a lot of strong swimmers who were seniors they are prepared and ready to work hard for this up and coming spring season of swimming.