When autumn turns to winter, one of Biddeford High School’s winter sports will no longer take place in their own program.

The BHS Varsity Swim and Dive Team will not compete as their own team this year due to the lack of students participating in the program.

Swim and Dive Team members, like senior Owen Williams, who have participated in swim and dive since sophomore year, find themselves feeling wistful about the decision to cut the sport.

“It’s makes me upset that there is no longer a swim team at our school,”said Williams. “Even with just the few kids we had on the team last year it was an enjoyable experience working towards that common goal together.”

Even assistant coach, Teri Schang feels bereaved about the situation since she watched interest in the program slumped in the past several years.

“When I first started coaching with Mrs. Cyr seven years ago, we had 45-50 swimmers and to see the decline in interest, now that it’s pretty much cut is really sad,” said Schang. “It’s a great sport.”

Participants, like sophomore Gabby Smith, are more frustrated with the cut than anything else.

“I don’t like it at all because I have been swimming for 13 years and when I finally get to high school, I don’t really get to experience it as much as anyone else,” Smith said.

Athletic Director, Dennis Walton, explains the future of the Swim and Dive program will be through a cooperative with other local schools.

“Thornton Academy has already agreed that if we have a few kids that still want to swim that they can go with them,” said Walton. “They’ll practice everyday with Thornton Academy, They’ll travel with Thornton Academy  when they go to their meets, but they will still compete for Biddeford High School and they will still be Biddeford Swimmers.”

The new change of combining the TA and BHS team will not stop Williams from continuing to dive his senior year.

“I do still plan on swimming with TA, because my main focus is diving this year,”  said Williams. “Even when our school had a team, my diving coach was also TA’s diving coach, so nothing will change when it comes to diving.”

Unlike Williams, Smith will not swim for Thornton Academy’s team. Instead she will take on a new start in hockey.

“I’m not going to continue swimming this year since we are combining with TA because TA’s team is too big for me,” said Smith. “I prefer to swim on a smaller team.”

Even though Schang will not coach for Thornton Academy, she does plan on still staying involved.

“I don’t know if I would go to every practice but I would definitely go to some of the meets, so I could stay involved and know how they’re doing,” said Schang. ” I know how to run the high tech, which is a system that runs the meets and I wouldn’t mind going in and running a meet, if it was a home meet for TA or Kennebunk.”

According to Williams, the cut has depended more on the number of athletes and less on the actual cost of running the sport.

“You have so many people to keep a sport going and with the dropping number in athletics at Biddeford, the swim team each got smaller and smaller so I think it was inevitable,” Williams said.

The cut not only affected the scheduling of the team but it may also disquiet many of the participants as well.

“I did have some swimmers come to see me that were upset about the team being cut,” said Schang. “I also had some kids come see me that might have been interested in swimming, so obviously the interest just popped up at a really bad time.”

Swimming and diving will be missed in its own program by not only the swimmers but coaches as well.

“I was happy as the assistant coach,” said Schang. “It was such a good establishment.”