DES MOINES, Iowa —

Seven years ago, North High School didn't even have a girls' swim team. Now, they are city champs.

The program was cut in 2018 but came back in the fall of 2020. Coach Scott Weinheimer started with just two swimmers, and he grew the program year by year. This year, the team is up to 25 enthusiastic swimmers.

"It has been a good comeback," he said. He is also the coach of the North Side Swim Club, known as the Otters, so he already had a "pool" of candidates to join his new team.

"A lot of the girls in the water have swam with me in some capacity since they were 4 and 5 years old," he said.

Weinheimer served in the reserves for 8 years as a Marine Combat Instructor of Water Survival. One of the things he brought with him to coaching is AMRAPS, which is short for As M

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