Coach Dave Boggs hasn’t kept a record of how many siblings he has had on his Seymour swimming and diving teams over the years, but he doesn’t remember ever having 12 at the same time.

“That’s about a third of our team right now,” he said of the seven girls and five boys who have a brother or sister competing this winter.

“I would say six sets is pretty high for us,” he said, and when asked about how he gets a certain athletes’ attention, he said, “I might have some nicknames for them here or there.”

“It’s a good thing having siblings, and we always pride ourselves being family-oriented,” Boggs said. “We treat each other like a family. We spend so much time together that it’s like being with your family. We see some of them more in a day than their parents will. I might have them in a class.

“It’s quite unique here,” he continued. “I love having siblings out. There never has been an issue, no sibling squabbles. There are no seniors in that group. I always enjoy coaching them. I love having numbers. It has always been a good thing.”

There is one set of twins, sophomores Wes and Will Proffer, and a set of brothers, junior Lucas and sophomore Micah Jablonski.

There is one set of sisters, junior Makenna and freshman Lindsey Greenawalt.

Brothers-sisters are sophomore Tristan and freshman Lauren Dowell, junior Larry and freshman Lillian Simons and junior Jadrix and freshman Krenzley Zumhingst.

During the holiday break, swimming practices began at 7:30 a.m. and went to 11 a.m. Makenna Greenawalt said the winter practices took a lot of energy.

“They’re hard. You kind of have to mentally prepare yourself the day before. You know you’re going to be in the water for a long time, so you use the time the best you can,” she said. “I like the challenge of just trying to maintain your form when you’re under water.”

Her main events have been the 100 breaststroke and the 200 free relay, and she said she likes the relays better.

Makenna, who also plays tennis for Seymour, said she began swimming in sixth grade.

“I enjoy how close you get with your teammates and how you can feel yourself getting stronger and improving the more you work at it,” she said. “I think Seymour is a good school, and it’s nice how you can focus on your academics and still be a part of all the different activities and stuff.”

The Seymour girls will host the Hoosier Hills Conference meet with the diving and semifinal rounds of diving set for Thursday night, beginning at 6 p.m., and the swimming and diving finals will be Saturday afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m.

“I just want to drop time in my breaststroke and get under 1:20. I just have to focus on my form more,” Makenna said.

Lucas Jablonski said he enjoys having a younger brother on the team.

“We’ve been in most sports together, and we get to hang out together in cross-country, swimming and track,” he said.

Lucas said they will probably be in the same events in track, but in swimming it varies.

“We do different stuff. We’ve kind of branched out,” he said.

He enjoys the distance freestyles.

“The 500 free is definitely my favorite. It’s most like running, to be honest. Running cross-country is definitely my favorite sport,” he said.

“I’ve enjoyed making friends with the different teams and just hanging out,” Lucas said. “That has always been a great time. I’m getting to meet new people. I’ve met different people in cross, swimming and track, and being with some of the same people, like the Proffers, and just getting to know them really well.”

As the season progresses, Lucas said he will keep pushing and work on the small details.

“All of those should add up to improving my time by a lot,” he said. “It’s going to be really tough to get a state cut. I’ve got to beat some people on our team first. I need to get up with them and pace, and once I do that, hopefully by next year, I’ll be up there.”

Larry Simons brings his sister to school and said they talk swimming at home, saying they compare times.

His main events are the 200 and 500 freestyles.

“I like the 500 better. It’s longer, and you need more endurance. I’ve been working on longer strokes and keeping up my endurance,” he said.

“At practice, I like to let out all the stuff that maybe went wrong through the day, just all the stuff that you need to get out. You can’t hurt the water,” he said. “I like these (winter break) practices because it takes a lot out of you, it pushes you.”

He said he has been swimming for eight years, and swimming is his only sport at SHS.

“At sectional, I want to beat (assistant coach) Dennis Bowers’ record,” he listed as a goal.

Jadrix Zumhingst said he has been swimming since eighth grade.

“I’ve done a lot of 200 freestyles and 100 back,” he said. “I’ve been doing more 50s recently and dropping a bunch of time. I like the 200 free. It’s pretty nice. I’ve been trying to improve on that. A big part is always keeping the start good and keeping the turns consistent because you have a bunch of turns, so you have to always make sure that you’re keeping them consistent as you get to the end, that you don’t tire out and get slow or have bad turns.”

Jadrix has enjoyed having a younger sister on the team.

“Having a sister on the team, I feel like I’m a role model and that I’m a leader to follow or an example to set,” he said. “I’m just there to show her what to do since I’ve been here all these years.”

The junior is working to lower his times throughout this season.

“I definitely want to drop my times,” he said. “To be a big competitor, I need to drop my time by 10 seconds in my 200 freestyle, and to do that, I have to hold my breath, so I’ve been doing a lot in practice holding my breath, to take less breaths because if you take more breaths, it definitely slows you down.”

He said when he and the team get into their taper in February, he can definitely reach that goal of the 10-second time drop.

“When it comes around to conference and sectional, dropping a bunch of time is definitely attainable,” he said.

Other members of the swim team include Sydney Bush, daughter of boys basketball assistant coach Steve Bush; Sophie Coates, daughter of athletic trainer Kyle Coates; Katie Cottrill, daughter of band director Kevin Cottrill; Dominic Dennis, son of boys soccer coach Matt Dennis; and Lane Mellencamp, son of gymnastics coach Angie Villarreal.