See all posts in the Kirk’s Captain Corner series
(Kirk’s Captain Corner is a regular feature that will allow Carver County residents to get to know the student-leaders of the various teams in our high schools. Today, we feature Chaska HS Junior Sam Kvam, Co-Captain of the Chaska/Chanhassen StormHawks Boys Swimming and Diving Team. Sam will compete in this week’s Minnesota State High School Swim Meet along with others from the Chaska/Chanhassen team.)
How long have you been swimming? Did you swim for a club growing up?
I have been in club and high school swimming for seven years. I have swam on the West Express Swim Team during all of those years alongside swimming for the Chaska-Chanhassen high school team for the last four years.
What do you enjoy the most about swimming?
My favorite part of swimming is being able to spend so much time around my friends and teammates. Spending multiple hours nearly every day training with them has been a huge part of my enjoyment of the sport both in and out of the pool. Most of my close friends are the people I swim with, and I don’t think swimming could be the same without them. Doing hard sets and difficult events in meets is always way easier when I’m around my friends and teammates.
I, too, was a swimmer in both high school and college, and some of my best memories were the general goofiness that happens in swim practices. Any fun stories you could share about StormHawks practices over the years?
My favorite moment from our season so far was during our first week of practice when we had to do a “StormHawk 500,” which is swimming 20 lengths and getting out of the pool each time you get to the other side and doing 10 push-ups or 20 crunches depending on which side you are on. Normally everyone does this freestyle, and the fastest people get free breakfast paid for by our coach. However, this year he offered that anyone who did the 500 butterfly instead of freestyle would get a breakfast regardless of their time. The entire team, new swimmers and all, did butterfly. Watching everyone fight through and complete what is usually already one of the harder sets in the first weeks in addition to the horrendous butterfly technique that almost everyone devolved into near the end was a great moment.
500 Butterfly? That is brutal! Kudos to everyone who made it through that! What was your favorite competition highlight from your years on the StormHawks swim team?
My favorite moment in competition is by far is from the state meet last year. During prelims in our 200 freestyle relay, I jammed my finger into the wall pretty hard on my finish and I could tell that it was hurt but I thought it was not too bad. As I was cooling down after that race, however, it seemed like my finger was bending just a little strangely, but I just figured I was overreacting. When we came back for finals, I ended up needing to have that finger taped to another because it didn’t have any strength in it and I was entirely unable to control how it moved when I was in the water for warm-up. During the entire meet I was extremely nervous of what would happen during my race with the taped finger; but when I swam my race that day in finals it didn’t even feel like I had anything wrong at all. I was shocked at how I hadn’t even felt the tape or the weakness for my entire race. I actually ended up swimming a time only 0.01 second slower than my prelims swim even with my injured finger. It was a great feeling to have still been able to swim well even with my finger in the way.
Dang, way to bounce back quick! What are your plans for next year?
My plans for next year are to continue swimming both club and high school. I’m excited to have the chance to improve and watch all of my teammates do the same!
What has it meant to you to be a team captain?
Being a team captain has been a great experience. I love being able to show our new swimmers what it means to be a StormHawk athlete. It can be a little strange for some new high school swimmers, especially those in middle school, to get adjusted to all of the different schools and people on our team. Making sure the new athletes are aware of our team events and traditions is a great privilege to have. More specially to me, I bring and hand out the sandwiches for the team at our dual meets and being able to have an opportunity to talk with everyone by handing them all their sandwiches on the bus or our home pool deck before meets has been great to get to know them all. I’m extremely excited to continue meeting new swimmers and showing them how to be StormHawks!
