Improvement. Progress. Confidence. Those are the traits Gilman swimming coach Ian Brooks stresses over and over to a team that is loaded with young competitors.
Beating conference rivals is also important, but deemphasized to a point.
"We are not going to beat Loyola, and we are not going to beat Calvert Hall," Brooks said. "That doesn't mean we can't come out and across the board have 13 varsity guys all post a best time. That could happen if we lose by 20 or win by 20. We tend to focus more on individuals than the team aspect."
Brooks has been coaching at Gilman for two decades and it's one of his youngest and smallest teams.
"It's not the youngest team I've had, but it's on the younger side," Brooks said. "I don't have that many seniors. We had a couple of kids that decided not to come out — at least two seniors and two juniors."
Seniors Jake Smith, Justin Mun, Nicholas Johnson and Jack Dearing are working closely with freshmen Matthew Mu and Connor Mitchell and sophomores Max Bethel and Gus Brunn.
"We are really focused on building a team this year," said Johnson, who swims the 200-yard freestyle, 100 backstroke and in the 200 and 400 free relays. "We want to strengthen our young kids so we improve as the season goes along. We have to keep up the spirit. We are always yelling and encouraging our guys. We want them to swim fast and go hard no matter what."
Gilman's most accomplished swimmers are sophomore Hamed Hudhud, junior Andrew Blomquist and Mun.
Hudhud and Blomquist have gained valuable experience swimming for the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, the same program that produced Michael Phelps.
Mun competes year round for the Mariner Swim Club at Gilman. For the Greyhounds, Mun swims the 50 and 100 free and is a huge part of the 200 and 400 free relay teams.
"He is a sprinter and a very hard worker," Brooks said. "He is the anchor on most of our relay teams."
Hudhud excels in the 100 butterfly and 500 free. He's also part of the 400 free relay and the 200 medley relay teams.
"He has tremendous stamina, is a pretty smart swimmer and is a very hard worker," Brooks said. "He is immensely talented. He had an older brother (Muhammed) swim here. He is very much the same kind of (standout) swimmer."
Perhaps no one has improved as much as Blomquist since joining the program.
"He's made tremendous improvement over the last two years," Brooks said. "He was a good freshman. He's a very, very good junior. He's dropped his times a lot over the last couple of years and it's mainly because of hard work."
Gilman will face defending league champion Loyola Blakefield on Dec. 16. The Greyhounds lost their season opener to Calvert Hall, 108-60, in Roland Park on Dec. 2.
Blomquist (1st, 200 IM, 2:05.77; 2nd breast, 1:07.03), Hudhud (1st, 100 butterfly, 56:87; 2nd 500 free, 5:07.95) and Mun (1st 50 free, 23:70; 2nd 100 free, 51.46) had the best performances for the Greyhounds against Calvert Hall.
"They need more depth, but they have some fast swimmers," Calvert Hall coach Pat Marshall said. "They are missing some top stud kind of kids, but they have some nice swimmers. The program is really building up and quickly."