NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
PHARR — Most swimming programs share a pool. Often, the schedule is predetermined. Athletic periods are crafted to align with bus routes that transport athletes from their home campus to the water.
January is a valuable time to prepare for district meets, which get underway this week. Most coaches keep their cards close to their chest and away from the other schools with which they share a facility.
In PSJA, the scenario is a little different. All four high schools — PSJA High, PSJA North, PSJA Memorial and PSJA Southwest — practice in the same place at the same time.
Every morning at 7, about 30 swimmers from the high schools convene and work under the motto “four teams, one heart.”
“Seeing regional qualifiers and, this past year, state qualifiers, it’s really cool,” PSJA High’s Jose “Josie” Gomez said. “When I joined, it was only the second year. Even though I qualified for regionals, I know there’s something more that we can do. I guess it’s just seeing our dreams being fulfilled going from district to regionals, and now state.”
Jonathan Landero, who oversees all four teams as PSJA ISD’s swimming director, said that the setup wasn’t originally designed to create a competitive advantage when the program started in the 2013-14 season with the completion of Pharr Aquatic Center.
“The model that we are applying has definitely worked for us. It was almost absolutely necessary, because the program was brand new. It never existed before,” Landero said. “If we separated all our kids, we would have had two kids swimming per school, alone.”
As the size of the team grew, the philosophy of sticking together remained the same. The four high schools have been on a mostly upward progression. They have produced qualifiers for the regional meet while earning team district titles for the PSJA North girls and PSJA Southwest boys teams.
The school district and Landero owe a lot of success to Joshua and Joseph Velasquez from PSJA Southwest. While Joshua has moved on to college at Lindenwood University, he and now-senior Joseph represented the Javelinas and tri-city area as the school district’s first state qualifiers.
As the season reaches its most important meets, with the District 31-6A meet running Thursday and Friday at the Pharr Aquatics Center, the younger Velasquez knows the process and work required to get back to the final day of racing on Feb. 17.
“Honestly, I work really hard for it,” Joseph Velasquez said. “When I want to achieve, when I want to get that goal of going to state every year. It’s really hard, but you always need to keep training, especially when it’s so close. Since it’s so close to state, you have to push yourself that much harder.”
Last year, the Javelinas sent their 200-yard freestyle and 200 medley relay teams to state. Juan Mejia and Joseph Velasquez return from those historic groups.
“I’m not a fatalist, but it does seem almost a little bit like fate,” Landero said. “We were in a position of growth at the time with PSJA. We were working really hard. And their arrival really kind of took some of the better swimmers already at PSJA, and it showed them if they worked really hard, they can get to a level that the brothers were at.”
Landero feels the elite swimmers raise the level of competition for everyone in the water, leading to widespread improvement.
“As a program group, it really just became a big benefit for us, because you have the fastest swimmers of all four schools possibly swimming with each other,” Landero said. “Then the kids that are aspiring to do that, they get to see the type of work ethic that takes place.”
While Landero hopes all competitors can make progress, PSJA High’s Gomez made such a leap that he’s become the team captain and an example of what effort can produce.
During his early days, he hardly knew how to move around in the water.
“I guess the biggest difference for me is being able to cross the pool,” Jose Gomez said. “I joined swimming because I wanted to learn how to swim, so when I first got in the water, I was just doggy paddling across the pool. But even after my first year, there was a big difference. Comparing my freshman year to this year right now, other than me getting faster, the team has grown.”
Elsewhere in the Valley, the District 31-5A meet will be held Thursday and Friday at the Bannworth Aquatic Center in Mission, while District 30-6A will compete Friday and Saturday at the McAllen ISD Natatorium at McAllen Rowe.