THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Emmett J Conrad High School Athletics

Black swimmers at Conrad and Carter squashed stereotypes about the capabilities of African Americans in the water. Efrem Seleman ended swim season with a splash. Along with his Dallas Conrad teammates, the junior won a district title and a bronze medal at the 4A Region II championships on Feb. 1. “I did not suspect it would go this well,” said Seleman, one of several team members without previous swim experience who helped the boys program to their first district championship last month. Several swimmers at Carter also dipped their toes in the water for the first time. Despite their lack of experience, the Carter girls won a district title, their first in program history. Seleman and Carter swimmers such as junior DeAndria Cannings weren’t representing only their schools when they took the podium. With courage, determination and the help of their coaches, they made strokes in a space that hasn’t always welcomed Black people. Throughout history in Texas and across the U.S, African Americans have been excluded from swimming pools — which were primarily located in white communities — and relegated to separate, lower-quality facilities, if any at all. Lack of access to pools and swimming education has resulted in fatal outcomes for the Black community. Black children ages 10-14 drown at a rate 7.6 times higher than white children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the USA Swimming Foundation found that 64% of African American children possess little to no swimming ability. While they didn’t make the UIL 4A state championship meet, set for this Thursday and Friday, Black swimmers at Conrad and Carter squashed stereotypes about the capabilities of African Americans in the water. But pools are still a space that lack representation. “We were one of the only, if not the only, Black schools at most of the swim meets,” said Cannings, who won four medals at the district championships in her first year of competitive swimming. “In my competition, it was majority non-Black girls. Sometimes it’s intimidating, but I just had to go with what I know and what I practiced.” Treading water First-year Conrad swim coach Neil Grisham had a challenge on his hands. Before he could even work with swimmers on technique, he had to get many of them comfortable in the water. “Of the district winners, we had four that had never swam before. And I mean not swam before — not in a pool, not anywhere,” Grisham said. He took baby steps. First getting them acquainted with the water, then getting them to swim various distances and finally teaching them to dive. “You’ve got to have incredible courage to do something like that to begin with and the persistence to continue to do that,” Grisham said. Carter swim coach James Spencer, a special education teacher, used techniques he implemented in the classroom to teach his athletes how to swim. Coaches started with breathing techniques and then guided the athletes through the various swim strokes, starting with freestyle. Many of the students were scared at first, Spencer said. “Building the confidence in the pool was a hurdle and a lot of them didn’t get it at first. They kept trying. They kept listening. They started to believe in the process in which I was putting them through and then they began to gain their confidence,” Spencer said. Conrad athletic coordinator and head football coach Josh Ragsdale marveled at the opportunity the swim program presented for the students. “You’re not going to see that at a lot of places. You’re not going to see coaches that have the patience,” Ragsdale said. “I’ve been in districts that if you can’t do this in this amount of time, don’t even worry about trying out for the swim team. But we’re getting a lot of opportunities for young men and young women that they wouldn’t get in other places.” The patience and belief coaches at Conrad and Carter had in their students paid off. After they each won district championships, Grisham and Spencer jumped in the pool to celebrate. “It’s very significant, especially for the school knowing that we haven’t had a swim championship in the history of the ladies side,” Carter coach Spencer said. “We never had enough female participants to reach the mark to have our name in the conversation for a championship, so it was really exciting and a great experience.” Opening up the pool Seleman said he plans on returning to the pool for his senior season next year and hopes to swim in college. Before he started swimming, Seleman didn’t really participate in other sports. But he said he found a home in the pool, which was foreign to him and several of his teammates until recently. Though Black athletes have thrived in sports such as football and basketball, it doesn’t mean all African Americans are built for or want to participate in those sports. “Not everyone wants to go out there and get smashed,” Grisham said. Yet many don’t have the opportunity to pursue other activities, such as swimming, or have access to facilities. “It seemed like something that perhaps was culturally not available maybe,” Grisham said. “It clearly wasn’t a matter of not being willing to do it.” Shelia Songa, mother of Carter swimmer Austin Songa, said Carter didn’t even have a swim team when she attended the school a few decades ago. But she always wanted to make sure her son knew how to swim for safety reasons. Austin took a liking to the pool beyond merely being able to save his life, qualifying for regionals this year. During his race, Shelia cheered loudly from the stands. “This is something exciting for my son to be a part of,” she said. “It’s like history in the making.” And it’s a story Grisham said the athletes can have for the rest of their lives. “Swimming really is a predominantly white-dominated sport. I don’t think that’s any secret. It doesn’t have to be,” the Conrad coach said. “ To open that up to everyone is really vital.” By Myah Taylor Myah Taylor covers high school sports. She formerly worked as a Collin County reporter for The Dallas Morning News. Taylor has contributed to the Austin American-Statesman, Yahoo Sports, the Los Angeles Times and Texas Monthly. She is a 2022 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Emmett J Conrad High School Athletics

D-FW HIGH SCHOOLERS ARE SHOWING BLACK SWIMMERS CAN MAKE A SPLASH: ‘IT’S VERY SIGNIFICANT'

MYAH TAYLOR

Dallas Morning News | 2/13/2025

PHOTO CREDIT: Liz Rymarev