By Diana Pimer, Swimming World College Intern
KEENE – With Thanksgiving break quickly approaching for NEISDA swimming, images of turkey overload and mashed potato mountains commonly fill the minds of collegiate swimmers. After this comes winter training, where sunshine and countless hours in and out of the pool take place. In no time, it will be February and swimmers will tackle trials/finals meets, squeezing into technical suits and the emotions of reaching toward goals with their teammates.
For members of the NEISDA conference, however, the February taper meet always brings one more tradition— the Norwich University Swimming & Diving Team’s annual performance.
At Sunday night finals of every New England Championship, the Norwich team performs a unique cheer on deck where they ultimately jump into the pool.
The performance brings humor and light to a tense final session. However, for the Norwich team, it brings much more. Norwich senior Patrick Ogden, a cadet Major and Regimental Community and Athletic Liason officer, explained the meaning behind the Norwich tradition.
“The cheer that we do on the last day of New Englands is a team march to the cadence of ‘Airborne Ranger.’ We compile this common cadence as if we were actually loading a plane and jumping out as an airborne ranger in the military would do for his career,” Ogden said. “We march the whole team around the deck and we perform airborne tasks such as gear checks, personnel counting and preparations to ‘jump’ similar to what an airborne soldier would do 1,250 feet from a plane. After the whole team has jumped, myself and another commissioning cadet on the team will stand and salute each other before we jump ourselves, rendering respect to the year’s swimming and the team.”
However, when the Cadets are not working on their swim cheers, they are embodying other traditions. As students at the first private military academy in the country, Norwich swimmers are exposed to the military lifestyle, something most college students may never get to experience.
“The traditions the school holds in high regard: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. These are the seven Army values and a code to live by at the school. Along with many other military-themed ethics, the team uses what they learn in the corps and it carries down into a well-disciplined and highly respected group of swimmers,” Ogden said.
However, according to Norwich junior and captain Justina George, not all students need to participate in the military lifestyle.
“Unlike other military colleges in America, Norwich has a dual lifestyle which means that you don’t have to be a corps cadet or do anything military related to go to school. All the other captains, for example, are members of the corps cadets. However, I am not, I am part of the civilian population at my school so that means I have no military obligations,” she said.
George said that some of the differences between corps and civilian lifestyle include wearing a uniform versus wearing everyday clothes, having hair style and length regulations and living locations on campus. Aside from some military rules and regulations, all students eat and play sports together.
“Especially from the swim team, I’ve never experienced any discrimination in terms of civilian/corps lifestyle. No one cares once you get on the pool deck. We don’t care if you’re a rook, we don’t care if you’re higher rank, a civilian or commuter…the swim team has a lot of team cohesion,” George said.
Along with this unity, the Norwich team brings their military values over to the pool. Even for those executing the civilian lifestyle, all trust the Norwich standard.
“One of our strengths as a school and a team is discipline. We have the mental strength to persevere even after you hit a roadblock, it happens. But we use that in our favor because that’s what we endure in everyday life,” George said.
“For the majority of the team that is in the corps of cadets at school, the transfer of military lifestyle to the pool carries over,” Ogden said. “Even though the team contains many high-ranking cadet officers, we make sure the freshman feel welcome. Being in the pool is a safe-zone for many rooks because no one is yelling at them or making them do military-like tasks, but that doesn’t keep us from instilling the attitude and respect toward officers and upperclassmen.”
Both Ogden and George agree that the values and lessons learned at Norwich University will propel them towards a bright future, even after they hang up their swimsuits. George aspires to be a nurse, and is currently in the nursing program at school. Ogden has goals of going to medical school and becoming an Army doctor, specifically a radiologist. Whether the Cadets are in the corps, living the civilian lifestyle, or swimming at the NEISDA Championship, they carry along with them tradition, pride and honor.
“I feel a sense of unity and respect for every individual that I come across. In the pool, I have used my persistence and loyalty to make sure that every race is exactly to my standard and if not, I make sure that it is fixed the next time. Norwich has given me the tools to succeed in both the military and life, and I carried that into the pool and have tried to make the team the best it can be,” he said.
Diana Pimer is a senior breaststroke/IMer at Keene State College who has won 10 NEISCA championship titles in her career. Prior to joining KSC, Pimer swam for the Hopkins Mariner Swim Team as well as the West Haven High School squad. She’s also been a summer league head coach for the Rockingham Area Swim Team.