Doing the butterfly can be very difficult and tiring. No, we are not talking about a dance move here; it's a swimming stroke!

Palo Alto's own swim team practices the butterfly stroke

plus the breaststroke, the backstroke, and the freestyle, to name a few. The Palomino team is made up of 14 members. Ten of the members belong to the men's team and four belong to the women's.

"Even though the boys team is bigger than the girls, I'm very optimistic about the girl's team," said Priscilla Palmer, a freshman Business Administration major at Palo Alto. "Hopefully with enough practice and dedication we can have a great season."

Each of the swimmers has at least high school swimming experience. Some of the members have come from places such as Waco and Houston to swim here.

"They are the best group of competitive swimmers from top to bottom that I've had since I've been here," said David L. Johnson, Palo Alto's Head Coach for men and women's swimming. "Both talent-wise and attitude-wise."

Johnson said the team is not divided up into certain strokes but instead by what the student/athlete is best at doing. The different types of swimmers are long distance, specialty stroke and short distance. The athletes can swim anywhere from 50 meters (two pool lengths) to 1,650 meters (66 pool lengths) at any one swim meet.

At a basic swim meet, freestyle swimmers will swim in categories of distances that range from 50 meters to one mile. Breast, butterfly, and backstroke swimmers will swim in categories from 100 to 200 meters. Although they swim in yards at practice, the swim meets require them to swim in meters.

"I really enjoy competitive swimming," said Palmer. "I have been swimming for a long time."

Johnson's weekly routine for the swimmers is to lift weights every Monday morning at 7:10. Tuesday through Friday mornings from 7:30 to 9:30 and afternoons from 1:10 to 3:10 are practice swims. Johnson said the weight lifting the swimmers do is to strengthen arm, leg, and stomach muscles.

Palo Alto's diving team is also associated with the swim team. The diving team is made up of two men and two women. The diving coach is Stan Randall.

Johnson is not only experienced, but also very knowledgeable when it comes to swimming. His 25 years of experience in coaching swimmers and 10 years of competitive swimming are real assets to the team.

He graduated from Central Michigan University in 1976 with a Bachelor's Degree in Science. Right after graduation, he attended graduate school at the University of Michigan. While attending school there, he was an assistant swim coach.

For a number of years, he traveled back and forth from Michigan to San Antonio, all the while working with and coaching approximately 483 swimmers. Finally, he settled in San Antonio in 1988.

Besides being the head coach at Palo Alto, Johnson is also the head coach and director of the Alamo Area Aquatics Association at Northeast.

Johnson's major accomplishments include: receiving the High School Coach of the Year Award in Michigan (1988), receiving the award for Coach of the Year in Club Swimming (four times) and having two of his former swimmers make the U.S. Olympic Team and receive two gold medals at the Atlanta games.

Some of the swim team's upcoming events include a women's swim meet in the second week of December and a men's meet during the third week of December.

Johnson said that the team's biggest goal for the season is to win the National Junior College Athletes Association (NJCAA) Division III National Championship.

Division I is for swimmers who receive full scholarships. Division II is for those who receive tuition waivers. Division III is for those who do not receive scholarships or tuition waivers.

This year the NJCAA National Championship will be held here at the Palo Alto College Natatorium during the first week of March.

For more information about the swim team, call Johnson at the Palo Alto College Natatorium at 921-5163.