St. Tammany High School Swimming: Quality for a long time

High school swimming in this state has often been dominated by private schools from the New Orleans area, but since 1988, schools from St. Tammany Parish have enjoyed a remarkable amount of success.

This success has not come from just one or two teams either. In fact, schools from all over the parish had enjoyed success in the pool.

The Mandeville High boys got it started back in 1988 by placing third in the state. Since then and over the past 34 years, only twice (in 1997 and 1999) has a school from St. Tammany has not finished in the top three. Out of the 15 schools in the parish, six different girls teams and seven different boys teams have finished in the top three.

When you breakdown the numbers, you find that 20 state titles, 27 state runner up honors and 34 third place finishes have been earned in that span. The LHSAA state swim meet had no divisions until 1991; all teams no matter their school size were required to compete together.

Then came a big change.

The sport was moved from the spring to become a fall sport. This fundamentlay changed the number of schools that could effectively fields teams. When swimming was a spring semester sport with the very limited number of heated pools in the state, many high schools struggled finding warm enough water. With the switch to the fall, this wasn’t a problem anymore.

The result was an explosion of high school programs adding teams. By 1993, the LHSAA had to create two swimming divisions when 5A and 4A programs were put into Division I and the other classes (3A, 2A, 1A, B and C) were put into Division II.

This setup lasted until 1996 when the LHSAA had to move to the current four division format, with 5A as Division I, 4A as Division II, 3A as Division III and 2A, 1A, B and C comprising Division IV. Today there are 178 high schools that have swimming programs.

But why have St. Tammany schools done so well? Two majors factorsstand out. The quality of the coaches and strong summer league programs help the parish shine. Many of the high school programs are also coached by year round coaches. The summer league programs start in May and give kids three additional months of training before the high school season beings in August.

This year’s LHSAA State Swimming Championships are right around the corner, set to be held Nov. 16-19 in Sulphur. Don’t be suprised to see the likes of St. Paul’s, St. Scholastica, Northshore, Mandeville, Lakeshore and Pope John Paul II bring trophies home this year.

Below is a breakdown of each school with the year(s) they have finished in the top 3:

Girls – Results
Year – Place – Points – Division

Mandeville HIgh
1989 – 2nd – 192 pts – N/A
1995 – 2nd – 227.5 pts – D1
2009 – 3rd – 202 pts – D1
2011 – 3rd – 261 pts – D1
2012 – 3rd – 268 pts – D1
2013 – 3rd – 276 pts – D1
2014 -2nd – 296 pts – D1
2015 – 2nd – 261 pts – D1
2016 – 3rd – 268 pts – D1
2017 – 3rd – 239 pts – D1
2018 – 2nd – 237 pts – D1
2019 – 2nd – 238 pts – D1
2020 – 2nd – 227 pts – D1

Slidell HIgh
1993 – 2nd – 183 pts – D1
1994 – 3rd – 227 pts – D1

Fontainebleau High
2009 – 2nd – 211 pts – D1

Northlake Christian
2015 – 3rd – 164 pts – D4

Northshore HIgh
1996 – 3rd – 264 pts – D2
2004 – 3rd – 207 pts – D1
2006 – 3rd – 243 pts – D1
2007 – 2nd – 310 pts – D1
2008 – 1st – 337 pts – D1
2009 – 1st – 376 pts – D1
2010 – 1st – 295 pts – D1
2011 – 2nd – 351.5 pts – D1
2012 – 2nd – 288 pts – D1
2013 – 3rd – 204 pts – D1
2021 – 3rd – 204 pts – D1

St. Scholastica Academy
2000 – 2nd – 375 pts – D2
2001 – 1st – 365 pts – D2
2002 – 1st – 417 pts – D2
2003 – 1st – 416 pts – D2
2004 – 2nd – 277 pts – D2
2005 – 2nd – 362.5 pts – D2
2006 – 2nd – 394 pts – D2
2010 – 3rd – 223 pts – D1
2011 – 1st – 495 pts – D2
2012 – 1st – 479 pts – D2
2013 – 1st – 495 pts – D2
2014 – 1st – 400 pts – D2
2015 – 1st – 355 pts – D2
2016 – 1st – 303 pts – D2
2017 – 1st – 409.5 pts – D2
2018 – 1st – 429.5 pts – D2
2019 – 1st – 455.5 pts – D2
2020 – 1st – 318 pts – D2
2021 – 1st – 401 pts – D2

Boys – Results
Year Place Points Division

Mandeville HIgh
1988 – 3rd – 148 pts – N/A
1989 – 3rd – 179 pts – N/A
1990 – 3rd – 146 pts – N/A
1991 – 2nd – 178 pts – N/A
1992 – 2nd – 158 pts – N/A
1993 – 3rd – 193 pts – D1
1998 – 3rd – 181 pts – D1
2000 – 2nd – 227 pts – D1
2001 – 3rd – 191 pts – D1
2014 – 3rd – 225 pts – D1

Northlake Christian
2015 – 3rd – 161 pts – D4

Northshore High
1996 – 3rd – 276 pts – D2
2007 – 3rd – 146 pts – D1
2009 – 3rd – 210 pts – D1
2012 – 3rd – 163 pts – D1
2017 – 3rd – 168 pts – D1

Lakeshore High
2017 – 3rd – 212 pts – D2
2019 – 3rd – 208 pts – D2
2020 – 2nd – 216 pts – D2
2021 – 2nd – 266 pts – D2

Fontainebleau High
2010 – 2nd – 306 pts – D1
2011 – 3rd – 287 pts – D1

St. Paul’s
2000 – 1st – 277 pts – D2
2015 – 3rd – 196 pts – D1
2016 – 3rd – 112 pts – D1
2019 – 3rd – 184 pts – D1
2020 – 3rd – 182 pts – D1
2021 – 3rd – 200 pts – D1

Pope John Paul II
1991 – 3rd – 147 pts – N/A
2015 – 2nd – 175 pts – D4
2016 – 2nd – 268 pts – D4
2017 – 2nd – 200 pts – D4
2018 – 3rd – 225 pts – D4
2019 – 2nd – 293 pts – D4
2020 – 1st – 337 pts – D4
2021 – 1st – 319 pts – D4