“With last year’s forgettable season behind the boys Oak Harbor swim team, head coach Patrick Stewart is confident that the Wildcat swimmers can improve upon their 1-9 record. We just didn’t have many people so that made it kind of hard, said Stewart. This year we have more people and I think we’ll do a little better.In a sport where just having a person to swim a race can add to your score, last year the Cats were outnumbered at almost every meet.I see a lot of guys that say, ‘Yeah but I don’t want to wear the Speedo,’ said Stewart. This year we are trying to get a bigger Speedo, it’s called the jammer, it goes from your hips to your knees. Despite the team’s record last season, Oak Harbor did have some individual success. The team sent swimmers to districts where they placed but none made it on to state.This year I think I will have a few that go to state, said Stewart. Hopefully our goal is to get a relay for the guys because they haven’t had one since I have been coaching. Maybe 10 years ago they had one. One bright spot for the team this season according to the coach is Brent Rivard, who has been on the team all four years he has been at Oak Harbor. He is a senior this year and as soon as the season ended last year he was swimming all year round, said Stewart. That has really helped him out a lot. He was only a little bit less than two seconds off of making the state cut in his hundred breast. With the squad being so small, a relay team is a little difficult to put together.You just have to have the right four guys, said Stewart. But the first meet will tell us a lot. Stewart is optimistic about the season and says that he is surprised and has seen a lot of improvement in just the first week of practice. For some of them it is their first year really swimming much at all, said Stewart. Some of them didn’t do anything in the off-season, but a few of them swam all year round and they will probably do really well. Stewart admits that his team may not be in the best condition coming into the season but he does have some new swimmers that have come in from across the country.Last year we had a lot of seniors and they left, said Stewart. There were some juniors who left, they moved away and they were pretty good. Last year I lost quite a few swimmers, but these guys we have kind of moved up and they will be around a little bit longer. “