After nine out of 22 members of the men’s swim team quit in the middle of last winter’s disastrous season, the team is rebuilding itself with the help of a new head coach for what they hope will be a promising upcoming season.

In a sport that is based on competition in individual events, the loss of athletes last season put the team at a significant disadvantage. The men’s team ended up placing last in the New England Small College Athletics Conference (NESCAC) swim league.

“We had some great individual swims, but we didn’t have enough people to be competitive,” said men’s team captain Nick Huston ’13. “In some events, we just didn’t have anyone swimming. We were at a huge disadvantage because of our size.”

Huston believes that so many of his teammates quit because they were not physically prepared for the season.

“I think when we got to the start of the season last year, we were in terrible physical shape,” he said. “It was just too hard for some people, and it made them question their commitment to the team.”

Although the women’s team did not suffer the crippling mid-season losses that the men’s team experienced, six girls quit the team during the off-season.

“The reasons that girls quit ranged from going abroad to pursuing other activities to just not having the commitment to the sport,” said women’s team captain Emily Goettsche ’12. “Swimming requires a ton of work and a ton of practice, and sometimes there’s not enough time for it all.”

Maeve Russell ’14 said she spent all summer trying to decide whether or not to stay on the team before finally concluding that she was no longer committed enough to pursue the sport.

“I wanted to do other clubs, and I wanted to really get into my academics, and I felt like they were kind of mutually exclusive,” she said. “I could have half-heartedly continued swimming if I wanted to, but I felt like I had better ways to spend my time.”

Russell also said that a rocky team dynamic contributed to her decision to quit.

“I feel like, with any girl’s team, there’s drama,” Russell said. “You get a bunch of girls spending a lot of time together-–it can create difficult situations.”

But with the new group of freshmen swimmers and a new swim coach, both Huston and Goettsche believe that the team can be reshaped and revitalized for a successful upcoming seasonn.

“We have great new freshmen that all are very fast,” said Goettsche. “We also have a great new coach. He’s bringing a fresh perspective to the program. He’s really passionate about swimming, and I think our training and the way we think about swimming is going to improve.”

The University’s former swim coach Mary Bolich took a job as the Coordinator of Athletic Programs at Penn State University three weeks ago.

“I can say that from our standpoint, there’s no bad blood,” Huston said. “It was an offer she couldn’t pass up.”

New swim coach Frank Keefe coached at Yale University for 30 years before coming to Wesleyan this season.

“He coached for the Olympic team and the Pan-American team,” Goettsche said. “He’s world-renowned. He’s going to be much tougher than any coach we’ve had, but we’ll all go through the pain together. That will unite us more as a team and help us to recover from what happened last year.”

According to Goettsche, Keefe held a team meeting last Thursday that left her optimistic about the upcoming season.

“I think people got frustrated after losing people last year, but now we all feel a renewed sense of passion about the sport which we can see in our training and which will carry over into meets,” Goettsche said. “I think we have a lot to look forward to, and I think it’s going to be exciting to see what we can do in the pool.”