TAMPA, Fla. — When you make history, you sometimes have to learn how to manage your medals.

For the history-making Academy of the Holy Names swim team, a program that had finished as state runner-up three years in a row, there are a lot of medals to manage, including five individual titles, two relays and the Class 2A State Championship gold medal.

“I always coach the kids to bring it back home,” head coach Bill Shaffer said.

The first girls team in Hillsborough County to win a swimming state championship is forever the answer to a trivia question. So what set this team apart? Coach Shaffer said it’s their bond in and out of the pool.

These swimmers spent a lot of time together and became a family. That team bond leant itself to some individual accolades including Shaffer’s Florida Dairy Farmer’s Coach of the Year and Brooke Beede’s Swimmer of the Year honors. But it’s the unity that pushes these swimmers in the water where the team comes before anything else.

“When you’re struggling in practice, you know other people are struggling with you,” Shaffer said. “When you’re struggling to get up for morning practice, other people are getting up with you. And just to have that, other people with you.”

They also had extra motivation. This team trains with Jesuit High School, a program that won state titles in 2017, '18 and '20. It spurred the girls on to make their own waves.

“Really made them hungry,” Shaffer said. “And when we had the team, we made sure we didn’t squander the chance.”

But why now? Why this team? Holy Names had been close before, but there was something extra special about this group.

“They always have each other’s back,” he said. “They’re there for each other, good or bad and that’s what it really takes is a team effort.”

And that effort paid off in a big way. And set a new bar for future Holy Names teams.

"The electricity we’ve built here is second to none," Shaffer said.