The Lincoln Southwest swim and dive team has many traditions. Some of which are never seen unless someone decides to look. To look up that is. Hanging from the ceiling of the swimming pool are at least a dozen pairs of goggles. If that’s not weird enough, they also have a mannequin standing near the end of the pool.

“When people break their goggles or when they wear out, instead of throwing them away you would throw them onto the rafters. It’s not just a tradition for Southwest, a lot of schools do it,” senior Collin Wilcynski said. “The mannequin was started by Tommy (Palmer) and he just decided to bring it to one of our school meets. We dress it up in a speedo and different Southwest merch. It’s just a tradition to bring it to home meets.”

While the goggles on the ceiling may not be specifically a Southwest tradition, the swim and dive team has many other traditions such as singing the cheer, “ooh kah lay lah,” before every meet. They also do other bonding traditions. 

“My favorite swim tradition is swim sisters. An upperclassman girl would pair with an underclassmen girl and exchange gifts during home meets,” senior Helena Nguyen said. “I love the connection with all the swimmers and being able to cheer on others.”

The next swim and dive meet will be at Lincoln Southeast on Friday, Dec. 15, at 1 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 16 at 10 a.m.