Bald Beauties
Tradition is a big thing in the city of Jasper. Just as the football team has a team dinner every Thursday night before a game, the swim team has their own traditions. The day before the first day of practice is the last day any swimmer, both girls and boys, will shave their legs until either Sectionals or the end of the season. Although it’s not a typical thing for boys to shave their legs, by doing so it reduces the amount of natural drag on any part of the body while swimming.
Jason Fleck, junior, lathering up the head of Alec Erny, senior, in preparation to completely shave it for Sectionals the next day.
They do not shave their legs consistently during the season, because the drags slows a swimmer down and creates a separation in timing at the end of the season with cleanly shaven legs.
The boys swim team takes it to a whole other level. The week of girls Sectionals they dye their hair the opposite of their natural hair color. Then, the day before Sectional Preliminaries, the entire boys team gathers at one teammate’s house and have a “shaving party.” They take turns shaving most of the hair off each other’s heads with a hair clipper and then go back with a razor to remove the rest. Nolan Henke, a senior who has been swimming for five years, has experienced this tradition a lot. “It’s more a mind thing, you think you can go faster,” said Henke.
It is not just the boys who have traditions either. Any girl from the team who moves on to State dyes a small strip of their hair in the back of their head. There isn’t a scientific reason behind it, they just do it for the memories.
Friday, February 23rd, Jason Fleck and Max Henke move on to the State prelims. Max is swimming in the 500 freestyle and Jason is swimming in the 100 butterfly.
