Nothing stops Knights senior
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Allison Latham is all grown up, but not much else has changed since she started swimming at age 3.
”I’ve always loved the water,” Latham said. “My mom could never get me out of the pool.”
Fourteen years later, it’s still hard to keep the senior captain of the West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls swimming team out of the pool. Latham has a shoulder injury that has prevented her from entering her specialty, the 100 butterfly, for much of the season, but she hasn’t stopped practicing each and every day and swimming in every meet.
”She refuses,” said Knights head coach Theresa Bonanno. “That’s one of the things that made her a definite captain in my eyes. She’s been at almost every single practice for four years straight. I catch her saying to other kids, ‘Don’t skip out; you can finish this.’ Having known her as long as I have, she’s really grown into a very respectable, reliable, dependable young woman. That really shows on the pool deck. She’ll swim wherever I put her. No complaints. No questions.”
Latham and the third-seeded Knights were scheduled to swim against sixth-seeded Lawrence in the first round of the Central Jersey Division B state tournament after deadline Thursday. The Knights beat Lawrence in the opening meet of the regular season. The winner swims against the winner of No. 2 Ocean Township and No. 7 Rumson-Fair Haven on Monday. Latham is motivated to keep her senior season going, and not just for the chance at a rematch against Ocean, which ended their season last year.
”Hopefully we’ll win so we continue our practice,” Latham said. “I’m not ready for our season to end yet. I don’t mind up getting up at 8 a.m. for practice.
”I feel like I’ve always had this type of attitude, not just because I’m a senior or captain. I’m a very motivated person. If commit to something I feel I need to follow through.”
Latham committed to the Knights as a freshman and has followed through in a consistent career. She has enjoyed every day of it.
”Even when I’m sick and have a fever, I never want to miss a practice,” Latham said. “I feel like if I’m missing practice one day that I’d be letting the team down. I like to be a leader and never skip out on laps. If any of our swimmers are having a hard time and lacking motivation, I try to help them.
”Our practice is what gets us better and helps us at meets. As captain, it’s my duty to watch out of the other swimmers and make sure they’re having a good time, but also focusing on what we need to be doing.”
Latham always provides a great example to her teammates of the can-do attitude. Sometimes, she has too much of it. A rotator cuff problem is supposed to limit her practice time.
”She’s supposed to kickboard a lot, but she rarely does,” Bonanno said. “I’ve got to tell her to calm it down.”
Latham’s diligence has helped to forge a happy ending with WW-P North winning all but one dual meet in the Colonial Valley Conference. The Knights finished third at the Mercer County Championship on Saturday.
”We’re still on the excitement and everything of counties,” Latham said. “At counties, we broke a lot of school records. Everyone is excited to go into states after such a good season and looking forward to trying to break some records at the meet.
”I definitely think we’ve made a lot of improvement practicing every day and coming together and committing to practicing,” she added. “With our performance at counties and the number of records we’ve set, we look forward to going to states with our record as it is now.”
The Knights gained confidence early this season. Their newcomers proved that they would help replace some talented graduates, and some returning swimmers elected to focus on the high school swimming season rather than continuing with club competition.
”There have been a lot of factors coming together to set up a good season for us,” Bonanno said. “Getting our big meets out of the way seems to be key. Getting them out and done early just puts our team in a really good spot.”
The Knights enter the state tournament feeling good about their chances. Allison Latham doesn’t expect to compete for a college team next year, but swimming won’t be over for her when WW-P North’s run ends. That seems impossible.
”I’d like to continue swimming on the side,” Latham said. “I love swimming.”