CHARLOTTESVILLE — After a three-year-long process to find a swimming and diving conference, the Eastern Hancock program will officially be part of one beginning this upcoming season.
While the school’s other sports will continue to be a part of the Mid-Eastern Conference, the swimming and diving team is now a member of the newly formed Eastern Central Swim Conference.
The charter members of the conference are Eastern Hancock, Blackford, Centerville, Elwood, Hagerstown, Oak Hill and Purdue Polytechnic.
The idea to join a new conference came from head coach Mike Dolence, who saw the bigger schools in the surrounding area compete in their conference championships late in the season. To him, the Royals were missing that late-season high-stakes meet to help prepare for the sectional.
“I would watch as all of the other schools close to us in Hancock [County] and Henry [County] with swimming and diving programs compete in their respective conference championships, and have a good mid to late season warmup meet for the state tournament,” Dolence said. “We found ways to add meets, but it was still not really the same in terms of hype for the meet or ability to see where our training was really at.”
He reached out to Eastern Hancock Athletic Director Aaron Spaulding about the swimming team joining an already established conference, but the hurdles and ratification process to join an existing conference were too difficult.
That led to research on smaller schools in the area and the eventual creation of the Eastern Central Swim Conference.
Dolence found other schools with the same issue as the Royals and sent the list to Spaulding who got things moving with the other athletic directors.
“I want to recognize that without Aaron’s help in getting this idea built out and without him pushing forward the legwork to fruition, this would still be on the drawing board,” Dolence said. “He was able to work with the ADs from the other schools to make it happen.”
After two years of meetings, the conference was officially ratified this past winter and will begin its first season in a few months.
The first Eastern Central Swim Conference championship meet will be held in January.
“I am incredibly excited to be able to have this now within our meet schedule and to give our kids the opportunity to compete at a big meet against schools our enrollment size prior to going into the all-school state tournament,” Dolence said. “I have talked as well with some of the coaches in the conference, and they also are very excited about this and are looking forward to the meet.”
