Posted: Feb 16, 2013

Reboot

The Citrus College Women's Swim team will be back in the water for the first time in two years this afternoon. Photo By: Andrew Silva

Glendora, CA -- It's been two years, since the Citrus College Athletics Department has fielded a women's swimming team. That will change today, as the Owls will be in the water again for the first time since 2010, when Head Coach Andrew Silva debuts the rebooted program at the Western State Conference Pentathlon.

It's a tall task to restart a program. Silva is up to the task though, and has put the program on firm ground by fielding a team that is not only carries a large number of athletes, but quality athletes.

"My first expectations were fielding a team that has a quality of depth to it. We wanted to be entering multiple swimmers in each event with an opportunity for those swimmers to score points. We want to be competitive in each meet in conference, and that's the overall goal of the program in its first year back," Silva said. "A more ambitious goal of ours is to qualify some individuals and a couple of relay teams for State. We're working very, very hard towards accomplishing that."

Guiding the Owls through their expectations this season, will be a roster that gives Silva a number of different options based on its depth.

"Our depth, without question, is a strength. We don't rely on just one or two swimmers to be competitive in their events," Silva. "I really feel like from top to bottom everyone is capable of scoring points and contributing to our overall point totals."

The task at hand for Silva will be to find the best way to deploy that depth, and use it the best way possible to make Citrus a program that competes in the WSC.

"I need make sure that I'm putting each swimmer in the events that they will be the most successful in. Having the depth we have, it gives us a lot of versatility to have swimmers, swim multiple events and multiple strokes." Sivla said. "It'll be my biggest challenge as a coach, to placing them in those events where they can score the most points and be the most successful."

At the end of the year, if the Owls can find a way to keep improving from today's meet at Ventura College to the end of the season at the Conference and State Championships, it'll be a success.

"I want to see improvement. Given that we haven't had a team in a few years, there's a lot of these swimmers who haven't swam competitively in quite awhile. We have farther to improve then possibly any other team in the State, since we haven't had a team recently," Silva said. "I want to look back and really be able to say that everyone really progressed and moved forward. I would call the season a success if everyone is swimming their best at the end of the season, and showing some significant improvement from day one to the end of conference in mid April."