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Blue and gold spirit bleached blue and blonde

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January 21, 2010

Allison Jackson

Swimming is a sport for the fast, the flippered and now, the fair-haired. The Hoban boys swim team has brightened both their hair and the hallways with their new bleach-blonde hairstyles.

Although the tradition of swimmers dying their hair is fairly new to Hoban, it is a swim team tradition for the majority of teams throughout Ohio and even surrounding states.

“It helps to identify us as swimmers,” sophomore Danny Renner said. “No other sport team dyes their hair blonde and so people know what sport we participate in.”

The tradition of swim teams dying their hair blonde has many different origins and no one is quite sure which team started it and why. One rumor states that the tradition originated at Copley High School, where the mascot is an Indian. Before a battle, Indians would dye their hair to prepare for war. The swim team supposedly decided to continue this tradition and other teams jumped on the bandwagon.

Whatever the reason, having the members of a team bleach their hair serves other purposes.

“It builds team unity and it gets us ready for sectionals,” senior co-captain Lawrence Anderle said.

Bleaching their hair is only the first step however. A few days before sectionals the boys swim team will meet once again to change their hairstyles, but this time no bleach will be involved.

The swimmers will shave their heads to gain an advantage in competition by reducing drag so swimmers can move more easily in the water.

The responses to the new hair colors have ranged from gawking to guffaws. Many can not seem to understand why swimmers go to such extreme measures with their hair.

“I like the bleached hair; it brought the team a lot closer together,” junior Liz Renner said. “Some people may not like it but what they don’t understand is that it’s a swim team tradition that we’re just now getting involved in.”

Anderle agrees.

“Its slowly becoming a Hoban tradition and blonde is a good color for all of us.”

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