At 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 24, the last Wednesday of summer vacation, most Towson-area students are huddled under their covers, relishing the last few days of sleeping late before school starts. But at the Stoneleigh pool, a group of 53 girls is wide awake and prepared to work hard.

After attendance is taken, the girls get into position on deck. Music booms through speakers attached to trees surrounding the pool, and the action starts. The girls are turning, twisting and jumping to the beat, before diving elegantly into the water. Then the real fun begins.

"Do your best. Ham it up," bellows coach Maureen Huether, microphone in hand. "I want to see tight circles, straight legs." Huether paces the deck, watching her charges move through the water portion of their routine. "That's it, girls. That looked great," she says.

After a few minutes, Huether barks a welcomed order: "Take a doughnut break." With that, the girls scramble out of the water and over to the picnic tables for a quick boost of energy. 

These female athletes, ages 7 through 17, comprise the Stoneleigh Synchronized Swim Team, launched 58 summers ago by the late Margaret "Peg" Hogan, an International Swimming Hall of Fame inductee. The unique sport, which combines the skills of swimming, dance and gymnastics, made its Olympic debut in the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles. It's also an intercollegiate sport. But around here, synchronized swim teams of any sort are extremely rare.

"We did some research and we couldn't find any other community-based, non-competitive synchronized swim team in the country," said Mike Schuh, Stoneleigh resident and WJZ-TV reporter who acts as Master of Ceremonies for the team's end-of-season performance.

Indeed, those involved in the Stoneleigh Synchronized Swim Team treat it like a rare gem passed down through generations.

Huether moved to Stoneleigh when she was 4. Not long after that, she joined Stoneleigh's synchronized swim team, thriving as a participant through her teens. Neither she nor her sister, Pat Comber, also a former team member, could get the Stoneleigh Synchronized Swim Team out of their system. Now, the two women, along with Huether's daughter Maggie, form the team's coaching staff.

They're not the only ones who continue to feel an emotional tug for the team.

On that mild late morning in August, Ellen Roberts, Stoneleigh resident and chair of the Stoneleigh pool committee, had just finished her early morning lap swim at the pool before pulling up a plastic chair for a good look at one of the final practices of the season.

Roberts, who joined the team when she was 8, now watches as her 15-year-old daughter Chloe falls in line with the other girls as they prepared for the deck portion of their routine. The content look on Roberts' face suggests she was feeling nostalgic. Judging by the girls giggling and chatting in clusters before practice, it's easy to see why.

"The morning practices are the most fun," Chloe said.

They're fun, but arduous.

Beginning in June, the team meets for one-hour practices on weekdays. Come August, when the Stoneleigh Sharks Swim Team season is over—many girls are members of both teams—the synchronized swim team gets serious, with practices from 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m., Monday through Friday.

"Your eyes burn from the chlorine," says team member Margaret McElroy, who asserts that synchronized swimming is a lot harder than swim team, because there's a lot more to learn than just four strokes, and sometimes you have to hold your breath for up to 30 seconds under water. Her teammates, huddled around her, nod in agreement.

During the last two weeks of August, the intensity of the practices ramps up. None of the team members is allowed to leave for vacation unless it's a school-sanctioned trip. They've got too much to do. The team's energies are focused on their upcoming end-of-season performance.

Now in its 58th year, it's become a much-anticipated event throughout the community. Lasting about an hour and a half and involving several costume changes and land and water routines, the performance has residents staking out spots early on the morning of the event.

Traditionally, the free event is held on the last Sunday in August at 2 p.m. But because of the pending hurricane, the event has been changed this year to Saturday at noon.  

"We've got to get in by Sunday night," Huether said. Two of the team members, sisters who moved to Oregon last year, returned for the summer to participate on the team; they have a plane to catch. Plus, public schools return to class Monday and the pool will empty out.

"In the fall, when the tarp's on and the pool's closed, I get teary-eyed just looking over here," said Roberts, who lives directly across the street from the pool.