With nine of the 16 athletes on the Platte County boys’ swimming team being seniors, it’s looking to rely on that loaded class this fall.
Right now Collin Burton and Gage Jonkman are stepping up into that leadership role for the senior class. The Pirates’ top-two juniors coming back are Sam Regone and Brayden Carter.
Platte County sophomore Palmer Keith will be a contributor this fall.
“Those two are in their third year here and they are ready to compete with others,” Platte County head swimming coach Bret Anderson said. “A lot of it has been development; about halfway through last year, they were ready and this is the first full year that they will be competing.”
While Platte County is upperclassmen heavy, it has three returning sophomores in Palmer Keith, Cobie Parkin and Deacon Gutshall. Those three are looking to be key contributors this season.
“They’ve been swimming since before they got here so they are a little ahead of the game of some of the freshmen. We also have a couple of new sophomores who are learning things,” Anderson said.
The Pirates’ number one goal is to be better today than the day before. Platte County’s other goal is to have the players change their attitude to being harder workers, and wanting to develop into that role, in addition to qualifying for state and potentially winning conference for the first time since 2014.
“We have a few non-varsity level returners but they are going to have to step up and help us out at the varsity level. We had some talented guys last year, so it was hard to get everybody involved so they’re ready to go,” Anderson said.