As far as veteran high-school swim coaches go, you probably won’t find one more experienced than new first-year Inglemoor High School (IHS) girls swim coach Perry Dolan.

In his 51st year of coaching, Dolan was a swimmer himself “as a young person,” being named a High School All-American in 1958, and the next year he participated in the Pan American Games in Bogota, Colombia.

After a stint in the Navy, Dolan was taught and mentored by “some of the top coaches in the world,” and they inspired him to give back in whatever way he could to the sport.

“I officiated NCAA and Pac-10, coached whenever I could and stayed with this sport,” Dolan said. “Now I’m giving back to these guys what I got when I was a young swimmer.”

And for as long as Dolan has been coaching, he gave his highest accolades to the Inglemoor girls, who all joined together to sing “Happy Birthday” to Dolan at the end of a recent practice.

“That’s a band of sisters, and they work together to make the team work,” Dolan explained. “They’ve learned the values of ‘two thumbs up,’ and the values of working with each other and support. These are the greatest group of girls I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with as a team. We’re going to see a lot of accomplishments from these girls in the next couple years.”

In talking with the girls themselves and the smiles and laughter that abound at each early-morning practice at Juanita High School in Kirkland, the feeling is mutual.

“We’re a lot closer because of him, he’s really helped bring all of our girls together,” said co-captain Sarah Macdonald about Dolan. “He’s definitely been an asset to the team.”

WATER WONDERS

The IHS team, like many in the 4A Kingco league, is stacked with talent this year.

At the forefront is sophomore Sage Speak, who swims at the Junior National level. Speak placed third in the state last year in the 100-yard breaststroke event, crushing her personal best and also the IHS record, clocking 1 minute, 5.53 seconds.

So far this year, Speak has already qualified for state in the 200 individual medley, 100 free and, of course, the 100 breast.

“She’s done excellent this year and is working very hard, both in our program and with WAVE (Aquatics),” Dolan said of Speak. “She’s really, really tremendous.”

The team also features a number of state returners including co-captain Leann Yee, who made the consolation finals of the 50-yard sprint at state in 2010.

Yee was also part of the team’s fifth-place freestyle relay squad, which also consisted of Speak and sophomore Kristy Chiang.

According to Dolan, he has noticed that the more experienced seniors have been taking the underclassmen under their wings, helping ensure future success in the program.

“The younger ones — the older ones are teaching and working with them, bringing them on to the world of swimming,” he noted.

While the varsity team’s 31 swimmers represents a wide range of skill and speed, many of the Vikings’ top swimmers have loads of experience swimming for club teams as well as IHS, and Dolan has decided to embrace that.

“Endurance, teamwork on the relays, and building up personal values in themselves and goal-setting,” listed Dolan when asked what he is working on the most with the more experienced girls. “We’re bringing and molding both types of training principles, for this team as well as their (club) team.”

EARLY TO RISE

Being that there are simply not enough pools to service all of the local high-school swim teams, squads like Inglemoor are often forced to get in the water at odd times.

At an hour that 99 percent of high-school students would be sound asleep in bed, the Inglemoor girls are rising for another swim practice, which begins sharply at 5 a.m. each morning at Juanita.

“Very few of them have even missed a workout,” said Dolan on his girls’ devotion to their craft. “They do it because they’re dedicated and they have a goal, and that goal is the team.”

One thing is for sure — waking up well before dawn to do something you love with 30 other girls definitely helps the camaraderie.

“Overall we have a great team atmosphere,” said Yee. “It’s been a great start to the year.”

Added Paige Almond, the team’s third co-captain, “Five a.m. practices are quite enjoyable this year.”

Although he is just a first-year Viking coach, from what he has seen so far with the program’s depth and talent, he knows that the girls have a great opportunity to do well at the 4A state meet at King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way come November, where the team hopes to be vying for medals in nearly every event.

“We have a very good chance,” Dolan said. “These girls are going to work hard and see to it that we have a good, well-represented group of kids from Inglemoor.”