Most people get Annette McDonald going on the topic of the Free State High boys swim team and there’s no stopping her.

So why then does she give her husband the silent treatment when he tries to go there?

Because he works for the enemy, that’s why.

Kent McDonald, Kansas University’s record-holder in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for 30 years and counting, is assistant to head swimming and diving coach Ryan Adams at Lawrence High. Annette, a former standout swimmer at Louisiana State University, is the head coach at Free State.

“We don’t talk about that,” said Kent McDonald, who coaches masters swimming in Lawrence with Annette.

When they do talk high school swimming, they don’t get very far.

“It’s, ‘No, you can’t see my lineup,’ or, ‘No, you can’t see my workouts,’ ” Annette said.

Free State swimmers Brian Hatesohl, left, and Spencer Flannigan will lead the Firebirds this season.

Free State, the state title winner in 2004 and runner-up last year, opens its season today at 4 p.m. at the Topeka West Relay Invitational. LHS opens with a home quad meet Thursday with Free State, Shawnee Mission South and Blue Valley.

“Secretly, we’re hoping that maybe we can beat Free State,” Adams said. “Maybe. It’s a big question mark right now. We haven’t beaten Free State in a long, long time. They’re pretty young and we’re pretty young also.”

Since swimming is a no-cut sport, the range of talent on teams is wide. Given that, it’s important that more than just the coach is showing leadership. In that area, both McDonald and Adams consider themselves fortunate.

For Free State, senior co-captains Spencer Flannigan and Brian Hatesohl lead in more than just the races they swim.

“The guys have set the stage where pretty much everything we do, we do for the team,” Annette McDonald said. “Some guys might not swim events they really like because we want to score in as many events as possible.”

It’s tough to instill that team-first mentality if the most talented athletes aren’t on board with that. Thanks to Flannigan and Hatesohl, both of whom competed in the state meet a year ago, McDonald need not worry about that. Mason Heilman also is a returning senior. Other seniors include Chris Armstrong, who competed in the state meet in cross country, and Jeff Stebbins.

Returning swimmers Julian Spangler and Bryant Peterson are joined in the junior class by Cody Briggs (attends school at Pomona High but swims for Free State), Samuel Nitcher, Drew Schelar, and R. Grady Walker. Andrew Braden, Alexander Clayton, Kendall Harris, Austin Longhurst, Timothy Muetz and Alex Stroud join returning Danny Wolff in the sophomore class. Freshmen Alec Wroten, Julian McCafferty and Eric Gruber have McDonald excited about the future of the program.

Lawrence High swimmers Ryan King, left, and Jason Smarker are part of a strong Lions team this winter.

Robert Kocour is the only senior diver on the roster and among the four junior divers, Todd Lee is the only one who competed last season. Blaine Juhl, Matt Smysor, and Paul Wade are new to the team.

Adams looks for big results from junior Marcus Barnoskie and sophomores Alex Boyer and Zach Henderson. For leadership, Adams is counting on tri-captains Barnoskie, senior Jason Smarker and junior Jeffrey Standing.

Adams oversees the entire program and instructs the four divers: Freshmen Skyler Criswell, Tyler Pracht, and Tyler Trarbach, and sophomore Tyler Mattan. Kent McDonald helps to instruct the swimmers.

Senior swimmers Smarker, Tavis Sartin and Tristen Wagner join juniors Barnoskie, Willie Frick, Tim Hagen, Ben Kincaid, Ryan King, Alex Kim, Josh Penaloza, Sasha Plotnikov, Standing, Cody Weber and Kevin Workman. Boyer and Henderson head a sophomore class that includes Wade Billings, Lauren Burt, Dylan Hedges, Andy Kriegh, David Long, Thomas Schuh, Zach Stites, Joe Stogsdill, and Walter Summers. Freshmen Richard Christenson, Tim Dingus, Skyler Koener, Will Pendleton and Austin Sehorn also will swim for the Lions.

“We’ve got a lot of numbers,” Adams said. “I’d say we’ve almost doubled the numbers from two years ago.”

Two years ago, Free State won the school’s first state championship.

“It’s kind of hard to hold that team up as a goal to reach,” Annette McDonald said. “This team’s not a state champion, but that’s OK. It’s a good team.”