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During a recent swimming practice, Northwest's Weston Cook and a group of fellow seniors were checking out the banners hanging from the ceiling above the Grizzlies' pool.
"We saw there is one blank spot on the City League banner before we'll get a new banner," Cook said. "All the seniors said, 'We're going to fill the blank spot and it's going to say 2010.' "
The last time Northwest won a City League boys title was in 2003-04.
"Every day I hear, 'We need to fill it up, we need to fill it up,' " said first-year Northwest coach Sacia Quattlebaum, who replaced longtime coach Doug Vannaman. "Every day they say they want to fill it up. They are really motivated."
Winning that league title won't be easy. East won last season and will be tough and deep again.
East and Kapaun Mount Carmel are at Northwest tonight.
Early-season matches are always a question, though, because most teams' top swimmers are still competing for their clubs until after the holiday break.
Northwest has around 30 swimmers out, so there's depth in addition to a few standouts.
"We have a lot of talent," Cook said. "A lot of our juniors and sophomores are stepping up and will swim pretty well."
Junior Ben Boutwell, who competes in freestyle and butterfly, is a year-round club swimmer and the team's best athlete.
"I'm looking for his times to drop pretty significantly," Quattlebaum said. "Last year he was coming off an injury, and this year, he has really pushed himself over the whole year on his club team.
"He's gone to a couple championship club meets that he wasn't able to qualify for last year."
Sophomore Paul Wykoff, breaststroke and possibly the 200 free, will also be a swimmer to watch. Quattlebaum expects senior Jonas Street's times to drop, as well, because he joined a club team in the offseason to improve for his final season.
Other top swimmers include Bob Arens, Zayne Bentley and Cook.
"I think we're coming into the season better than last year," Wykoff said. "We're stronger and more motivated than last year."
And Quattlebaum has added morning practices for one-on-one time.
"She's getting more personal," Wykoff said. "When we went in for our morning practice at 5 in the morning — which was nice and fun — we worked on technique."
With extra work and a solid stable of swimmers, Quattlebaum is hopeful the Grizzlies can fill that banner this season.
"I don't think Northwest has tapped into their potential in the last few years," Quattlebaum said. "I think that this year they are strongly motivated and they are getting into some technique work on their stroke that they have not had before."
