Little Flower girl
is making new waves

By Joe Mason
For the Times

When Emily Thomas arrived as a freshman, she knew the Little Flower High School swimming team needed a lot of work.
And she couldn’t have been more excited.
Three years ago, when Thomas entered high school, the Sentinels’ swim program was in its infancy. Now in its sixth year of existence, Little Flower’s team is making big waves.
"Every year we get a little better," said Thomas, a junior. "It’s really exciting to watch how we’ve improved. I knew when I got here it was going to be good, and it’s going really well."
Thomas is the key.
Though her specialty is the 100-meter butterfly, Thomas has proved to be versatile, also swimming the 200-meter individual medley. She also takes part in Little Flower’s relay teams — the 200-meter medley relay and the 400-freestyle relay.
This year she took sixth-place in the 100-meter butterfly at the Catholic League individual championships on March 2 at La Salle University, a performance good enough to earn second-team All-Catholic.
To take home the honors, Thomas had to swim against the best in the PCL.
"I love that," Thomas said. "First, you have to swim the race the same way you practice. Then you just stay focused and do your best. It’s more rewarding to swim against the best than to swim against lesser competition and win by a lot. It feels a lot better to beat the best."
The individual accolades are nice, but it’s not exactly what Thomas is looking for.
After all, since she arrived at Little Flower, the motto has been team first, and like a proud pioneer, she continues to enjoy the rise of the Sentinels.
"I really wanted to be part of something, like the start of something big," Thomas said. "I’ve been swimming since I was five or six years old, and when it came time to pick a high school, swimming was important.
"When I visited Little Flower, I realized it was a place that I’d like to spend the next four years of my life, and it worked out that the swimming team was the perfect fit," Thomas continued. "Everything was perfect."
While swimming is certainly Thomas’ top athletic priory, she also has a hand in Little Flower’s most publicized sport — she’s a midfielder and reserve goaltender on the Sentinels’ soccer team.
"Soccer is good," she said. "It helps because I play both sports all year round and they both help me stay in shape for the other one. In soccer, you do a lot of running and that definitely helps swimming. I think both really go hand in hand."
While the sports might go hand in hand, Thomas has certainly had different results.
Little Flower’s soccer team is annually one of the top teams in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and always a threat to bring home a Catholic League crown.
This year, despite her success in the pool, Little Flower’s swim team finished Catholic League competition at 1-5. That one win might not seem like a lot, but to Thomas and her mates, it was everything.
"We had a really young team this year," Thomas said. "We had two seniors — Candice McNamee and Nina Kaufman — and they both helped the team a lot. They have been here since the very beginning . . . they were the leaders and they really helped put us in a great position.
"But this year, we had a lot of freshmen and younger girls who were dedicated," Thomas continued. "If everyone comes back and we get some good swimmers, good freshmen swimmers, we could be really good next year and hopefully we’ll beat a few of the teams that we’re gunning for."
That dedication to next year began on the day after this year ended. Thomas has high hopes for her final year at Little Flower, both in the fall and especially in the water.
"The perfect senior year would be to go to the championship game in soccer and win it," Thomas said. "And in swimming, I really want to make first-team All-Catholic in the fly, make All-Catholic on a relay team and beat some of the top schools during the regular season.
"Every year, things have gotten better, so I want to keep that going," she added. "I want to leave this program on the rise and watch it do even better after I graduate. We have a lot of young swimmers who can be really good. I just want to help them continue to improve." ••