Effective this fall, the Glacier Peak and Snohomish girls’ swim team will be completely separated.

As numbers continue to grow and grow, practices become crowded, and in some ways, dangerous. Around 100 girls participated in swim and dive this last season, previously split by JV and Varsity for both swimming and diving amongst both schools.

The team shared one head coach, Rob Serviss, who has been coaching for many years, starting his career with the Snohomish team before Glacier Peak opened. At that point, the team was significantly smaller, and prior to the Snohomish Aquatic Center’s opening, the two teams, combined, had a total of 50 girls. Since then, the team has grown to the point where the school district board had no choice but to separate the two schools.

“This has happened with multiple other sports at our school. There are even other schools that have to split their swim teams this year. This was going to happen sooner or later,” Kevin Judkins said.

Serviss was given a choice: Snohomish or Glacier Peak?

“I’ve put a lot of thought into this decision; I knew the day was coming soon. I just didn’t know it was going to be this soon,” Serviss said.

Because he started as a Snohomish coach, he has chosen to stay with Snohomish, leaving Glacier Peak without a head coach.

Both assistant coaches for the girls’ team have said that they did not have any interest in being a head coach. Jenny Service, a math teacher at Snohomish High School, and John Neff, a history teacher at Centennial Middle School, are both busy with their classroom and school duties to put as much time into coaching as Serviss does.

The news was first given to Serviss from the athletic directors from both schools. Serviss then decided that the captains chosen for this next season should know before parents, booster clubs, or the majority of the team.

“I was not able to make the meeting Rob called. He had me on speaker with the rest of the girls when he broke the news. I could tell Julia [Murphy] and Kelsey [Bensen, a Snohomish captain] were crying,” Riley Fidler said.

The dive team will remain combined, as each school district is allowed one dive coach, Marc Hughes. Their practices will still be together, but everything from fundraisers to team events to water practice for swimmers and apparel choices will be separated, and it is unlikely that the team will ever join together like they have for the last ten years.