Becky Osborne, coach of the Newtown High School’s girls’ swimming and diving team, has the usual goals of seeing athletes improve individual times and racking up team victories. The competitive side of Osborne is certainly still there, but the impact of coronavirus has changed expectations in all sports this school year, and there is no exception on the pool deck.

“I don’t coach to lose but we want to give the kids a positive experience,” said Osborne, adding that among the main aspirations for the fall is to provide the athletes with an outlet for any anxiety they may be experiencing.

Another team goal: For the season to continue, ideally until its scheduled end (the last meet is set for November 3 with the Bethel/Immaculate of Danbury co-op scheduled to visit NHS).

“Our goal is to have another practice and, eventually, have a meet,” Osborne said a couple of weeks before the scheduled season opener, Friday, October 2, against Pomperaug of Southbury.

Originally slated to take place in Southbury, this was reset as a virtual meet in which both teams will swim timed races at their home pools and combine times to determine the meet scoring and outcome. This arrangement was put into place to limit the number of people on the pool deck, which otherwise would get quite crowded.

Plans were yet to be put into place for upcoming meets, Osborne said on September 28.

The Nighthawks have had to split practices into two sessions to limit how many team members are at the pool at one time. Throughout the bulk of the preseason, swimmers were not allowed to use the blocks, and relay teams could not practice together. On September 26, with less than a week to gear up for competition, relays were allowed to work together, giving coaches better insight as to how the lineup should be shaped.

Newtown is led by captains Payton Bradley and Caroline Mahoney. Other strong returnees include Norah Kolb, Cate Fischer, and Shayna Millard. Divers, coached by Missy Carroll, are Ella Hall and Julia Calabrese. NHS has many seasoned swimmers with high school team experience and they welcome talented newcomers.

“We are very excited to see what our new group of freshman are capable of in the pool,” Osborne said.