At Palmer High School, winter sports are beginning to wrap up as the spring season approaches. Girls’ Swim and Dive recently finished their season on February 7, securing a league championship win after beating Coronado by 2 points, with multiple events qualifying for state. This is their fifth consecutive year as league champions. However, their win is not the only thing that makes this season special.
Geoffrey Lewis, a beloved biology teacher, has been working at Palmer for 31 years. This is his 13th year as the girls’ Swim and Dive head coach and will sadly be his last season. He is retiring at the end of this school year. Mr. Lewis was pleasantly surprised by their league win, and felt it was a great way to end his final season.
“The pathway to winning was kind of narrow,” he said. “But the divers and the swimmers all really stepped up their performance.”
Based on seed times, Coronado was expected to win the meet. He went into it with no expectations, which made the win that much more special.
“A two-point win means that at any point in that meet, a Palmer swimmer and a Coronado swimmer trade places, we don’t win the meet,” Mr. Lewis shared. “The best thing about this particular league championship is that … if we take any one swimmer or diver out of that, we don’t win the meet.”
He was incredibly proud of everyone’s contribution to the team. He emphasized each athlete’s importance in their success.
Mr. Lewis explained that swimming can be a disappointing sport because it takes a long time to see progress. He makes it a goal at the beginning of the season for each person to have their personal best time or score at the league meet.
“If I go back through, just about everybody on the team had a best diving score or best swimming time at the league meet,” he claimed, happy to have met his goal.
Coaching has been incredibly rewarding for Mr. Lewis. He is able to watch the girls grow not only as athletes, but people, too.
“Seeing the swimmers walk away, and the divers, with greater self-confidence. [Knowing] that if they put their mind to it and work hard that if they can achieve great things is very gratifying,” he said.
He also noted the team’s sense of humor. “There’s not a practice that goes by that they don’t make me just laugh hysterically about something … I’ll miss that.”
Mr. Lewis and the state qualifying swimmers and divers are in Denver for state on February 12 and 13, representing Palmer Swim and Dive, five year league champions.
