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Is the health of the studentathletes on Daytona State College's inaugural swim team worth $32,000?

The school's administration thinks so, installing a Blue Light Ultraviolet System to clean out harmful chloramines that were building up in the pool.

The system was installed to help kill bacteria and to reduce the amount of chlorine and other chemicals needed to account for the 40 plus swimmers who will be using the pool in the L. Gale Lemerand Center.

DSC's administration is excited about the athletic program and has made the health of the swimmers a top priority.

"Since the pool had never seen this much activity before, the swimmers were churning up the chlorine and producing a lot of chloramines in the air, which were making people sick," said McCarthy. "To improve the health of the student-athletes we decided to install the Ultra-Violet System in the pool, as opposed to adding more chemicals."

Anyone who had passed through the Lemerand Center prior to the installation, which was done in early November, could smell the chlorine in the air. It was even apparent to people coming in from the North parking lot. The air quality in and around the pool has been vastly improved since the system has been in place. The swimmers noticed the difference immediately during practices.

"No one is getting sick anymore, and we are able to practice longer and harder," said swim team captain Kyle Berry.

Berry, a freshman at DSC, competed for four years at Astronaut High School in Titusville, Florida. He will be swimming the 500 Freestyle for the Daytona State Falcons. As a captain on Daytona State's inaugural team, Berry knows the importance of setting the standard here.

"We want to compete at a high level in this first year and give something for following teams to reach for," Berry said. "There is some pressure to set a benchmark, but that just drives us to work harder."

The initial issues with the pool could have been seen as a setback, giving the students-athletes and coaches a reason to back down from training. This was not the case for the team, though. They continued to train, using large industrial fans to blow out the noxious air while taking breaks to ease any breathing problems. No one quit, and now that the school has fixed the problem, this group of competitors is ready to get the season underway.

"As the first team for the school, we want to give new swimmers and following teams something to live up to," said sophomore captain Caitlyn Pritchard.

"As a captain, I definitely feel a lot of pressure to do well, especially since there is nothing to build off of from previous teams. That only gives us the drive to work harder and to go above and beyond any expectations."

Pritchard also competed for four years during her time at Titusville High School in Cocoa Beach, Florida. She will be competing in the 100 Fly and 200 Individual Medley for the Falcons, as she and her teammates prepare for the University of Florida Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Florida on Dec. 4-5.

DSC swim team head coach Steve Lochte is getting his team ready to compete with rigorous training and workouts, but he has more on his mind than winning competitions.

"The standard needs to be set in academics and social behavior, not just athletics. We want this to be a program that is looked up to by the students, administration and entire Daytona Beach community," said coach Lochte. "The biggest challenge is that there are no previous programs to give us something to work from. We have no student-athletes for the freshman - even the sophomores - to rely on, so that is a disadvantage. However, there are no expectations to reach; just setting a point of reference for future teams. And once that is set, it will make recruiting that much easier."

The Falcons have their first competition at home on Saturday, Jan 6 at 12 p.m. 12 to 14 other schools and teams will be competing in the inaugural Daytona Sate Winter Invitational. There have also been competitions slated for Wednesday, January 13th at 4pm against Rollins College and Saturday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. against Florida Atlantic University and the University of North Florida.

Information about the swim team's upcoming meets, student- athletes and coaches can be found at www.daytonastate.edu/ athletics.

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