This winter season is a rebuilding period for Northtown’s Girls’ Swim and Dive team.

There are only five people on the team this year: sophomores Hannah Leach, Erin Parra and Carlen Fidler, and freshmen Elly Lewis, and Rebekah Best.

All the girls are very young, but their desire to win is enormous. They learn more and more with every competition and use new knowledge in practice.

“We are a very small team. Other teams have about 30 people. But the atmosphere in our team is great. We are getting more like a family. We spend a lot of time together; we encourage and support each other before each competition,” said Best.

Some of the team members like that there are not a lot of people on the team.

“I like that we are not a very big team, because in this way we are very close and bonded,” said Parra.

Their new coach, Bob Barth, inspires positive attitude, dedication, and team spirit in the girls.

“He is my favorite coach I’ve ever had. He not only coaches, but helps us do our best, gives positive attitude and motivational speeches that always help us in different aspects of life,” said Fidler.

Not everyone knows a lot about him, though. He was coaching for 23 years, 10 of them in the district.

Now he teaches Social Studies at Staley and coaches three teams at the same time. It even became one big group – called Stoak Town – which comes from Staley, Oak Park and Northtown’s names.

“On the one hand, it’s hard to practice with everyone at the same place and time, but on the other hand, we have lots of good friends from the other two teams,” said Fidler.

Talking about Northtown’s team, Coach Barth said, “We are doing really well. All the girls work hard. Our times are dropping. I’m expecting good results at the end of the season.”

This swimming season isn’t over yet, and both the coach and his team have their own expectations for the successful ending and even next season.

“Our work will be built on success. We’ll get more girls on our team and improve the skills we have. We are going to be really good in a couple of years,” said Barth.

The girls are also very motivated to do their best.

“I’m going to the varsity conference by myself. I’ll be representing our school, and I won’t let it down,” said Leach.