The WAHS Warriors varsity girls swim and dive team recently won the state championship. For most schools, this would be an uncommon occurrence. Western is different. The girls swimming team has won five straight state championships. Five. They are the most dominant high school dynasty in Virginia.

Head Coach Dan Bledsoe does not feel that this championship meant anything more than the other four. “I don’t necessarily think one means any more than the other,” Bledsoe says. “We really don’t go into the season thinking about championships. We just think about how do we maximize how kids are swimming and how much fun we have, which translates into being successful.”

Several Warriors came up clutch in the state meet. Remedy Rule set four VHSL state records. Bledsoe says, “You see year-round swimmers who did an exceptional job of going into high school and really fighting hard for their team, which is different from them being a year round swimmer where you are swimming more for you.” Bledsoe was impressed with determination shown by Brazil Rule, Remedy’s sister. She may have had the swim of the year, in Bledsoe’s opinion, when she lost her goggles during an event at the Ben Hair meet. She stopped to rip them off and stopped at the wall, but still came back to win the race. “That drive to not lose, I think you see that a lot in our kids.”

One factor in Western’s domination the past few years is leadership. The leaders of the team make the expectations of the program clear to the young swimmers. Bledsoe noted that seniors, such as Brynn Acker, Remedy Rule, Julia Elder, Julia Wood, and Elinore Bragaw push the team to always find a way to win. As for next year’s season, the Warriors have lots of talent. With the loss of  many leaders, somebody will need to step up in practice. Judging by the team’s repeated success, that does not seem like a worrisome task.