By Michael Quirk

michael.quirk@oxfordeagle.com

The Lafayette County School Board voted unanimously on Monday in favor of bringing back the Lafayette High School swim team.

LHS will return to the pools for the 2016-2017 school year with the likely practice facilities being the Oxford Swim Club and the Turner Center during the colder months. There will not be a boys team and a girls team, rather a combined swim team with both male and female events. LCSD superintendent Adam Pugh said the revival of the program is due to drummed up interest from the student body.

“We wanted to see what the interest was and see what we aren’t participating in that the kids would like to participate in,” Pugh said.

The high school had a swim team in the past but it disbanded the better half of a decade prior. Just a few years prior to the disbandment, LHS swimmer Jeffrey Phillips, class of 2007, became the first African-American in the history of Mississippi to set a record in swimming. He went on to receive a scholarship at Georgia Tech where he is second in school history with a 2:58.98 400-Free Relay.

Coaching the swim team will be LHS science teacher Nicole Robinson. Pugh lauded the teacher’s background in the sport as the reason for her selection to head up the team.

“She swam at Delta State, swam at Oxford High School and for the Shock Wave,” he said. “She’s got some background and knowledge, and knows how to teach it and coach it.”

The price for being part of the team has yet to be determined until the team can decide on a final destination for practices. The team will mark the 18th varsity team for the high school.