Talawanda High School’s 2012-13 swimming and diving season will begin with the first practice at Miami University’s Aquatic Center the evening of Nov. 5, and head coach Steve Pasquale said he already is looking forward to another highly successful season.

Last year, as a member of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference, both the boys and girls teams won Western Division championships. The boys went on to send eight swimmers to the Division I state meet, where they tied for 16th place.

It was a significant feat considering that there are 135 boys swim teams in Ohio, and only 46 of them scored points at the state meet, and all the teams scoring more points than Talawanda had larger male student populations — five of them more than twice as big. Talawanda’s male student population is only 17 students above the cut off for division II status.

This year, THS will be a member of the Southwest Ohio Conference, which also includes teams from Edgewood, Harrison, Little Miami, Mount Healthy, Northwest, Ross and Wilmington. With five of the eight swimmers who went to last year’s state meet returning and the dramatic improvement seen in other swimmers, the forecast for this year’s men’s team looks very promising, according to Pasquale.

The overall performance by last year’s women’s team, bolstered by the addition of several talented freshmen, suggests that this will also be another highly successful campaign for them as well, Pasquale said.

Pasquale and his assistant, Miami University senior Dan Toberman, welcome all interested participants regardless of their level of swimming proficiency. They do, however, require that every participant be highly motivated to improve, come to all practices, and work as hard as possible.