Winter sports began on Monday at SM West. One of the several winter sports at West is swimming. The coach of the swimming team is Dave Kissack, who is a teacher here at West. They practice after school during the week, and their swim meets are usually on either Thursdays or Saturdays. I interviewed senior swimmer, Nick Bukaty, about his senior season on the swimming team.

Simple question first: How does the team look this year?

This year looks really promising. We have a lot of returning juniors and seniors returning and some underclassmen that show a lot of promise.

What races do you normally swim?

I normally swim the 100 back and the 200 hundred IM which includes all of the strokes.

What do you like about your coach, Mr. Kissack?

Kissack is a really chill guy he doesn’t get up in your face about every little thing and leaves a lot of the work up to us.

How many meets do you have during a season?

I don’t remember how many meets we have but I think its something like 12

Why do you expect to qualify for state?

I hope to qualify for state in the relays and individually for backstroke. Last year I got really close to the qualifying time for backstroke so I’m hoping to start out close to where I ended and make the cut early on.

What has made you to continue swimming?

Swimming is just fun. Its a lot of great guys and a lot of it depends on how hard you work as an individual but things like relays bring the team aspect into the equation

When did you start swimming competitively?

I think I started swimming competitively in 2nd grade with the Lenexa Lazers but plenty of people join the team without a background in swimming and do great.

SM West’s first swim meet is here at West on December 5 at 4 PM.