Rick Huston and his New Bedford High School Great Outdoors Team

The Outdoors Club at New Bedford High School is its oldest (46 years!) and largest extracurricular club.

It’s now headed up by Rick Huston, a long-time health and science teacher there.

Huston has done the Buzzards Bay Swim three times in the past eight years, and now he has recruited some students from the Outdoors Club to be part of his New Bedford High School team, which is sponsored by First Citizens Federal Credit Union.

The team consists of four swimmers from the New Bedford High Swim Team: Bryson Wynn, Liam Burdman, Daniel Lin, and Edward Niesig. “We have been practicing for three days a week on an endurance plan, building up our distance each time,” said Niesig. “This last week has been just overall straight sets with no stopping.” 

The Outdoors Club has long provided students at New Bedford High School the opportunity to experience the outdoors, arranging camping overnights in Western Mass with unique activities such as ziplining and exploring a haunted train tunnel. It also sponsors the annual senior hike up Mount Greylock, Massachusetts’ highest peak. 

Huston took over advising the club from beloved English teacher David Pepin. It now numbers 150 students.

But while the Club is known for great opportunities, it is also active in giving back to the community. It has participated in numerous beach cleanups around New Bedford as well as school campus grounds cleanups. It has also volunteered at local charity Gifts to Give. So the decision to combine adventure AND giving back by participating as a group in the Buzzards Bay Swim seemed a no-brainer.

Huston swam competitively his entire childhood in Florida, where swimming is much more popular. He soon sought out other challenges and as a young adult ran marathons. But as his own kids started swimming, he took it back up and took part in the Buzzards Bay Swim. “They were my inspiration,” he says.

And now his students are his inspiration to sign up for his fourth Buzzards Bay Swim.