Bonding experience: 3 Dickinson swimmers head to state with identical hair

• Luke Schields

Press Photo by Royal McGregor Luke Schields, a senior from Dickinson who competes for the Williston boys swimming and diving team, practices Dec. 7 at the West River Community Center.

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Dickinson swimmers are rocking bleached hair and mohawks going into North Dakota boys swimming and diving state meet.

Dickinson is in a co-op with Williston and the boys have been waiting all season for the state meet that begins Friday in Mandan.

“We’re pretty excited,” Dickinson senior Luke Schields said. “We’ve been practicing since November and we’ve had morning practice. It’s good to see it finally playing off.”

Every team in the West Region dyed and cut their hair for their meet. Though many of the swimmers from Dickinson have the unique hairstyle, team members say they’ll cut their hair for the state meet.

“It’s definitely a team bonding thing,” Dickinson junior Jacob Anderson said. “We walk around school with our bleached hair and everything. They know that we are the swimmers and it really brings our team together.”

Though Dickinson only has three swimmers headed the state meet, Schields and juniors Anderson and Kyle Pletan, the excitement level is building toward the state meet.

“They’re excited,” first-year Dickinson coach Kristy Roller said. “They’re giving each other Mohawks, dying their hair and doing all sorts of crazy stuff.”

Dickinson has already started tapering down with shorter practices and distances. The more energy the swimmers have, the better off they’ll be for the most important meet of the season.

“Tapering is probably my favorite part of the season,” Schields said. “You know you are going to be cutting time this weekend, because of the taper and you just feel really good in the water.”

This state meet is a big point in Anderson’s career. The junior said he enjoys observing others and learning from them.

“You can definitely look at the better guys in the state and take in what you can from them,” Anderson said.

Being that this is Schields’ final season for the swimming and diving team, his leadership has been extremely important for the younger swimmers.

“Luke’s been a pretty good help with the younger group just getting them pumped up and making them comfortable with the different swim meets that they go to,” Roller said. It’s always kind of nerve-wracking to go to different swim meets, but Luke makes sure they know what they are doing.”

With the state meet in Mandan and the West Region boys and girls basketball teams in Bismarck for the West Region Tournaments, Schields said there should be a good turnout from Dickinson fans.

“It’s nice having it this close to home,” Schields said. “… I know a lot of people will come and watch us when the guys aren’t playing basketball.”

After finishing second at the West Region meet in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle relays, Anderson said the runner-up places need to stop.

“Our two relays both got second,” he said. “That really gave us a little fire to go in there and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

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