Swimming is here and Decatur, Thomas Jefferson and Todd Beamer all have been practicing at the King County Aquatic Center in light of the opening South Puget Sound League season. For the Titans, it's the small South alignment.

"Only four schools are in it with swim teams for high school, so we have only 4 duals and a couple non-league meets," said Titans head coach Sue Bergman.

The Gators and Raiders will compete in the newly aligned SPSL North, which figures to be a little tougher with every school of eight in attendance -- including Federal Way, which is working hard at its own pool.

But will the Gators, who were 8-1 last year and undefeated the year before that and just about the year before that be able to ride through the new field of teams they duel in dual meets.

"I don't think so," said Gators head boys swim team coach Rick Dennison, halting that thought quickly. "We have a smaller team and we don't have the horses we've had in the past."

It should be tougher for the Gators than their recent state championship season back in 2004 then. The 'tougher' begins with who Dennison called their best swimmer, Tommy Cunningham, out the first three weeks of the season because of injury.

"He swims all the time. He is probably in the water more than on land," said Dennison.

Cunningham is a year-round swimmer. There are other year-round swimmers which kind of tells the tale of how good a high school team is going to be in a given year. The year-round swimmers are sophomore Keith Arns, junior Chris Ngy, sophomore Robert Sobus and littler brother Sean.

"We are getting ready for a good season," said O'Farrell, who went to districts last year in the breaststroke event and just missed districts the year before that, so his progression can be noted as a potential state guy, along with Cunningham and maybe some others rising to the top.

Dennison does not know who, but thinks there will be some younger kids that do something good by season's end. At least that's what he hopes. He also hopes for something else: "I'd like to get a relay team into the state meet."

The other swimmers Dennison mentioned were Justin Helms, and Zach Klein. Both are juniors.

"In the backstroke, Zach made districts but got sick and couldn't swim," said Dennison. "Justin's a cross country kid, good endurance, and he is coming along in the 500."

Another school that should do better than last year is Bergman's Titans, at least that's the goal.

"Getting a win is what we want to do. That's one of the things that's bugged them. They have never won a dual meet," said Bergman. "And they are enthusiastic and I hope to help them reach their goal. We came close a couple matches last year but just didn't have the depth."

They had two individual titles at state from graduated senior Jon Hiett, winning the breaststroke and 200 Individual Medley, but nothing teamwise. The good news for this team is it has been the top academic champion the past year, getting recognized for that feat at state.

More good news?

"We have 34 swimmers and that beats the 16 we had last year by quite a bit," said Bergman. "We have a lot of returners and also the kids have recruited their friends because they are having so much fun."

So that missing depth of last season is definitely not being narrowly missed this time around.

"This year with our depth we are thinking we will go further," said Bergman and hopefully blow that winless mark on them right out of the water.

Key swimmers are young, like Shane Clare, who is good and just a freshman. Bergman mentioned a slew of swimmers that should be potential state quality and leading off the list are a couple juniors, Kyle Christensen and Kyle Cassinerio. Also for doing well this season and hopefully getting at least to districts are sophomore Aaron Bower, seniors Jon Lee, Dustin Martin and TJ Young.

TJ has some good swimmers out there according to coach Wendy Neely, but she's not sure just who is going to be good yet. "We try really hard," said Neely, searching for words. "We have really good kids... With the new alignment of the North, I don't know the foreseeable future at all."

And with that said, the swimmers for the Raiders that will be headliners, at least early on, are junior Andrew Dizon, senior Julian Gaspy and sophomore brother, Jason, and sophomore Reese Hentges and sophomore Adam Hensley.

Jay Barfield probably will go farther, but eight or nine kids are here that could qualify for districts. Barfield is back for his senior season to try and get to state in the backstroke.

There are a mess of divers but the best one is one of Neely's, and is being coached by the Federal Way School District's coach for all the divers, Tim Fraychineaud.

TJ Raiders diver Eduardo Brambila is best, or at least known.

"Just about everyone is new," said Fraychineaud. 'It is a difficult sport to judge. The field is wide open. It is hard to tell who is best, but I think we will get a bunch of them to districts and Eduardo I think will go to state this year."

"Our team needed divers and I was a swimmer so I tried diving and did good and made it to districts after qualifying through the league meet," said Brambila.

Brambila is ready to get to where Fraychinaued says he will probably get state.

"I have learned a lot more physics over the summer and I can do dives easier that I had trouble with last season," said Brambila. "I have a higher D.D. (degree of difficulty) with my dives than last year and that means I have harder dives than I had last year."

About this season, Brambila said, "I think our three divers with me will do really good."

They are Eric Harshfield, John Dennis and Kyle Corbin.

"We have a lot of fun together," said Brambila.

And about the coach?

"Tim is a great coach and has a lot of enthusiasm," said Brambila.