'Finding Their Stroke': Storm, Rams swim and dive ready for '25-26 season

RIO RANCHO — Rio Rancho Public Schools’ fastest-growing athletic program is underwater.

No, they aren’t in trouble. It’s just the nature of the sport.

Cleveland High School and Rio Rancho High School swim and dive teams have been growing in size over the past few seasons, drawing big numbers ahead of the 2025-26 season.

“My main focus transitioning from last season to this season was to really try to grow the team,” Cleveland Head Coach Patrick Dorman said. “Just really trying to increase the visibility of the swim and dive team. And it’s actually worked. We’re now in our second week, and of course, we lost some seniors last year, but we still have about 10 more swimmers than we had last year.”

This new era of swim and dive in the city is still in the early stages, with Dorman and Rio Rancho Head Coach Jeremiah Stanton taking over their respective programs last year. Before the two came along, both programs were led by one coach, current Cleveland Assistant Principal Stacy Salinas.

The programs remain close, despite the schools traditionally being rivals. But now with two different leaders at the helm, both teams are finding their own identities.

“We had a massive influx of new swimmers, from eighth grade all the way to seniors,” Stanton said. “We have new team members who are from other sports who wanted to try out swimming. We’ve been teaching them, and already in just one week, they’ve progressed tremendously. We are a lot deeper than we were last year on the boys’ and the girls’ side. So I think we’re going to do some exciting things.”

It’s not every day you hear about a varsity program taking on athletes who are just picking up the sport, which is a reality in the world of swimming and diving. Some may look at this as a negative, but for the Rams and Storm, they are using it as a tool.

“We are used to that,” Stanton said. “Our way of doing things is, we don’t really cut anybody from the team. If you want to come out for swimming, if you want to learn, that’s where the joy is. Just teaching everybody and seeing their progression on an individual basis. It does take a little bit of creativity in the coaching, but it works really well.”

“What I love to see is new freshmen on the team,” Dorman said. “Because I’m confident that, in four years, we can have state qualifiers out of the majority of those freshmen.”

For both schools, they have already seen their open-door policy pay dividends.

“I had swimmers that had never swam competitively that wound up with state-qualifying times and actually competed at state,” Dorman said. “So I would say that a swimmer who doesn’t think that they’re going to reach that upper level, it’s possible. It’s very possible for those swimmers.”

“Last year, we had a good amount of cross-country runners come out and try out swimming, and towards the end of the season, they were doing amazing,” Stanton said. “They were scoring points for us at meets. It’s really motivating to get the new swimmers and just build the depth.”

But while the programs may be welcoming, don’t take them lightly. They are here to win.

“We have a solid, stacked girls dive team right now, and that could make the difference between getting us close to that district championship this year,” Dorman said. “I’m looking at growing the team, but still looking at increasing our standings at state and at the district level as well.”

If both programs keep progressing at this rate, who knows, maybe one day that Rio Rancho-Cleveland rivalry will make its way from the turf and hardwood and find itself in the pool.

“They’ve (Cleveland) grown tremendously as well; it’ll be good to have that local competition,” Stanton said. “Coach Dorman, who I have a tremendous amount of respect for, he’s working just as hard and just as energetically as we are. It’s pretty cool. We kind of try to match each other’s energy, and I think it’s really good for the swim teams in Rio Rancho.”