Smithtown High School East offers an array of sports, but one sport that has been killing it while going unrecognized, is the Varsity Girls’ Swim & Dive team. During the 2020-21 school year, the Smithtown team joined the Hauppauge team and ever since then they have been beasts!! This team is undefeated for two years in a row, is league and county champs 3 years in a row, and state champions this year. Many records have been broken within the past few years and are frequently best in the state. The team consists of 30-40 girls, with many of them qualifying for county and state championships. 

A typical meet starts out with both teams arriving and the home team setting up. At a certain time, both teams get time slots to warm up, usually between 20-30 minutes. Two lanes are put aside for divers from both teams to practice. When the meet starts, there are four events in the first part, including a medley relay with four people, one swimming each stroke, and three individual events. After that, there is diving, in which the divers each get five-six dives and they get scores between one-ten by two officials. After that, there are the rest of the events; which includes three relays, and five individual events. After the meet, everyone cleans up and they announce the scores. 

Practices take place every day of the week after school, and usually last around 1.5 hours. A certain amount of practices are required for each meet, and if you miss the practice the day before a meet, you most likely will not be swimming in the meet. Practices usually consist of similar sets — a set being a certain amount and distance to swim in a given interval of time. For example, a common set the team does for warmup is a 200 (8 laps), between 2-3 100s (4 laps), six 50s (2 laps) and eight 25s (1 lap). They would incorporate the use of some items such as a kickboard for a kick set or a pull buoy for a set using only their arms. 

The team has many coaches, some for diving, some for swimming, and one for managing the team. The coaches on the team are said to be some of the best coaches in Suffolk County and always motivate the team to do their best. Many of the girls grow a strong bond with them and develop a positive attitude which creates great morale for this team. The sportsmanship and support everyone displays is unmatched. Everyone cheers each other on for every race and congratulates each other afterwards, which helps bring the team even closer together and makes the team stronger as a whole.