The Game Change: Swimming ft. The Pontotoc Warriors

For the past few weeks, the Game Change looked at how the Coronavirus affected the atmosphere of a football game.

This week, Matt St.

Jean trades in his helmet and jersey for goggles and a cap as he dives into world of swimming.

I'm emily leonard.

For the past few weeks, the game change looked at how the coronavirus affected the atmosphere of a football game.

This week, matt st.

Jean trades in his helmet and jersey for goggles and a cap as he dives into world of swimming.

Std."

(matt standup) aaaaand 1-thousand.

A lot of tupelo area swim teams for practice they come right here to the tupelo aquatic center but because of the coronavirus there have been a lot of adjustments to make.

(pontotoc) heyyy!

Get going matt (matt) alright, coach.

This is the game change.

(rani greer) make.

(pontotoc) heyyy!

Get going matt (matt) alright, coach.

This is the game change.

(rani greer) it's definitely been different of swimming which is like a day out of the water is like a week in any other sport because you lose the feeling but we're getting back into everything so it's been good.

(track) rani greer is a senior on the pontotoc swim team, she also swims for a club team, but some of the new coronavirus guidelines makes her feel like a fish out of water.

(rani) probably swimming just with a mask on right when you get out of the water because you're out of breath and you have to put it right back on.

(track) the coronavirus changed practice schedules as well.

(jd chism) it's been rough practice has been different we've only been practicing one time here we have a country club pool in pontotoc that we've been trying to practice at (track) the pontotoc swim team has 20 swimmers.

When they practice at the aquatic center on thursday nights, head coach zack gory can only bring eight, but like any good coach, he's turned what could be a frustrating feeling into motivation.

(zack gory) top four girls, top four boys go.

You wanna be here swim your tail off throughout the week.

And so it's actually set up a little bit of incentive and little accountability for our swimmers.

(track) pontotoc is not the only swim team that uses the aquatic center.

Director amy kennedy is responsible for juggling the safety of all the schools and clubs that come swim at the facility.

(amy) we kind of mimicked what the club team had done when they started practicing during the summer (track) some of the things they mimicked was, social distancing for fans, capping the amount of fans at swim meets, swimmers must be changed and ready to go when they arrive, locker rooms are for bathroom breaks only, and of course, everyone needs to wear a mask.

The aquatic center is the host of this year's regional and state swim meets.

Accomodating that many schools and fans required them to make some changes.

(amy) we have limited the number of swimmers, we actually have separated the classes, so instead of having 500 kids here on one given day with a thousand spectators we are limiting 200 swimmers.

(track) kennedy said that they are disinfecting the facility often and it helps that the pool disinfects itself, so they are focusing on limiting face to face interactions among swimmers and fans.

Reporting in tupelo, matt st.

Jean, wtva 9 sports.

Next week, the game change will return as matt walks a mile in the shoes of cross country teams during the coronavirus.

Meanwhile