The H-10 Secret…What’s it About?

At Urbana High School, at the peak of every boy swimming season, you hear about something called H-10. Everybody’s asking what is H-10, and why has the secret been held for over thirty years? Only the swim team knows, and they still won’t say what it means, even to this day.

Coach Matt Rivers was only able to give a little information on the topic, since its very top-secret. Rivers wasn’t able to say who started the secret, only that it started over thirty years ago.

Rivers said that originally, H-10 probably wasn’t intended to be a secret. For something that was never meant to be a secret, it’s been kept very well for decades.

As mentioned before, everyone is asking what it means. Every student and even every teacher is trying to think of what it could mean. People around the school claim that they know the secret; many say it’s stupid.

One guess of its meaning is that it has something to do with the auditorium: row H, seat 10. Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t. If it does, then what exactly is the significance of this seat?

Most students think it means absolutely nothing. Many say that it’s probably just to make everyone want to know what it means. Everyone is itching to know, so if that was the intent, it is successful to this day. Then again, if it means nothing at all, wouldn’t that have gotten out by now?

Rivers says, “Even knowing the origin of the term doesn’t mean you understand everything that goes along with it.” He says it’s more about the camaraderie of the team. “I have received phone calls from alumni across the country who tell me how important H-10 was to them when they were in school, some of them more than twenty years ago.”

With everyone begging to know, one would think it would have gotten out by now. Considering the fact that it hasn’t, what is so important to keep it hidden for so long? What would happen if someone told?

Rivers said that he’s sure people outside of the team have known before because that always happens with secrets. He just doesn’t know who has known. He also said that there are no specific rules about what would happen.

Still, everyone will continue to ask and beg swim team members to tell what it means, and as long as the secret of H-10 has been held, it’s bound to be let out soon–or not. Maybe H-10 has many more years of mystery to go. Rivers says, “As someone who knows the secret myself, I’m not sure I want to find out what happens if I share it!”