Being a high school athlete isn’t easy — even for the elite. With the responsibility to keep good grades in addition to performing well for the team, these kids face a lot of pressure throughout the school year.
So when a group of kids can balance it all, they get rewarded. Just ask the Strawberry Crest boys swim team, which added a scholastic award to its trophy cabinet last month.
After recording the highest GPA of all Hillsborough County boys swim teams, the Chargers accepted an award for their achievements at a Tampa ceremony Thursday, Jan. 29.
“One of the main focuses of the school here is to put academics first,” head coach Paul Bonanno says. “We support the teams very much, but grades are more important.”
As with many teams, Crest holds a study hall for its swimmers before practices. On Mondays, which are early release days, the swimmers will hole up in study hall from just after 2 p.m. until 3:30 p.m., when practice starts. Attendance is mandatory, unless someone really doesn’t want to swim.
What makes it tricky for this group is that almost all of the swimmers are enrolled in the school’s International Baccalaureate program.
CREAM OF THE CROP
There’s the Advanced Placement program, which puts plenty of smart kids in college-level classes throughout their high school careers. The IB program, on the other hand, takes that to the next level.
Often considered one of the highest standards of public education, if not the highest, the IB program has students enrolled in a college-style scheduling block and essentially sends the graduates off to college with an associates degree in hand.
“Their schedule, it’s ridiculous,” Bonanno says. “They do block scheduling, so they’re in classes for two hours as opposed to a traditional 50 minutes.”
Bonanno says that about 80% of his swimmers are in the IB program. The girls program, he says, has around 60% IB enrollment. So, it makes sense that a Crest swim team would eventually win some kind of scholastic award.
They also do well in the water. Bonanno’s second year as head coach was full of positives.
“We had two swimmers go to states, which is a huge accomplishment,” he says. “We had 10 boys go to regionals and Western Conference finals. Our relay team made it to regionals, which is huge. Our freshman class is amazing. We had a freshman go to states, which is almost unheard of.”
Junior Hunter Dennis is a captain for the boys team and an IB student. He says that the balancing act of IB studies and swimming is a tough one to keep up, but doable with some motivation.
“It takes a lot of organization,” Dennis says. “You really have to plan out your time, assignments, everything you’re going to do. During season, I go straight from school from practice. When I get home, I do homework until dinner. Then, I do homework again until it’s time to go to sleep.”
Dennis has his sights set on attending the University of Central Florida, where he plans to study architecture. He says that the IB program should help him save money while attending college by allowing him to get college credit in high school.
This award is a resume builder for him and his teammates, even if they weren’t expecting it.
“I was kind of surprised,” Dennis says. “But, happy that we won. There are a lot of kids who work hard on this team.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
WHAT IS IB?
The International Baccalaureate organization is recognized worldwide as a leading name in education. The organization offers educational programs for students 3 to 19, though not all American public schools are IB schools.
The programs are rigorous, yet rewarding. Many high school IB students graduate with college credits.
Strawberry Crest High does offer the IB program for its students. For more information about IB, visit ibo.org. For information about Strawberry Crest, call the school at (813) 707-7522.