Emmaus swimming head coach Tim O’Connor was doing some cleaning and organizing in his office recently and stumbled across an old binder.

The binder held notes he had taken early in his coaching career at Emmaus and had tips and ideas he had written for himself. O’Connor slowed his cleaning to go over some of the notes and found something that he had gotten away from that was perfect for this year’s team.

Among the senior swimmers and younger swimmers who have worked their way through youth programs and come through the Emmaus Aquatic Club, this year’s team has some relative newcomers to the sport, who O’Connor simply wasn’t familiar with.

In his notes though, he found a tool that would help him to find out more about them and allow them to find out more about their coach and what his expectations are for them.

“I pulled these new kids out of the pool during practice and said ‘I want you to watch practice’,” said O’Connor. “For about an hour, we just watched other swimmers and they had some really good questions for me about things that I never would have thought to address, and I was able to show them what I mean when I talk about going on top, or a breakout.”

After the session, O’Connor said he felt like he knew a lot more about the new freshmen swimmers and they had a better grasp on what his expectations were for them as part of the Emmaus swim team. That’s important, because this year, there are eight freshman boys and four freshman girls, with varied backgrounds in swimming.

In addition to the newcomers, there’s a good crop of established swimmers who made great strides last season, some of which were a little surprising.

As a freshman, Chelsey Gravereaux went to states in the 200 individual and Katie Champagne was a second-team All-Star in the EPC for the girls team. On the boys side, Ethan Carr and Conner DeJohn both went to states last season and are taking up roles as true team leaders.

The boys team finished 12-0 last season with its 12th straight league title and ninth straight District 11 Championship.

The good news is that the squad lost just one senior from that group, giving them high odds of repeating again this season. The girls finished 11-1, but were hit much harder by graduation. Even so, the remaining upperclassmen are working to develop a team-first attitude and O’Connor is optimistic about their odds for success.

One of the biggest improvements for Emmaus has been in the diving program, which has come from nearly non-existent to a true bright spot for the team. O’Connor credits a win-win situation for helping the program to develop.

It all started when Southern Lehigh’s team was in a bind. They had divers and a strong diving coach, but the pool that they use for practice wasn’t equipped for diving. Emmaus had a great diving facility, but was in need of a strong diving coach and looking to develop more divers.

“It was perfect,” said O’Connor. “They were looking for a place and I was looking for a coach. I told them they were welcome to use our pool, but I needed them to coach my divers. Frank [Donnelley], the Southern Lehigh diving coach, liked the idea and has even gotten a club group going.

“It really started as a need and has developed into what we have now.”

The diving team does take a hit this season with the exit of PIAA qualifier Jess Hurlburt deciding to concentrate on three-meter diving with her club team rather than the one-meter diving offered in high school competition.

On the boys side, Andrew Vanim returns as the top boys diver, looking to continue his improvement that has shown over the past couple of seasons.

The season opens Saturday with the Cedar Crest Invitational, an event put together by O’Connor and Parkland coach Rob Robitaille. This season, Governor Mifflin will join the invitational, which begins at 10 a.m. at Parkland High School.

“It’s a great way to gauge where we are against Parkland and to compete against other really good programs,” said O’Connor. “It’s also a great way to open the season, against an amicable rival in Parkland and then we see them later in the year in the regular rivalry meet.”