On the surface, girls’ swimming is just another successful winter sport at Creek. But for those who have been doing it since childhood, it is more than just that. And for the girls’ swimming team, it’s more than winning. It’s a lifestyle.
“I started on my neighborhood swim team when I was six years old and I was always a water baby, as my mom calls it,” senior varsity swimmer Ella Jones said. “I just fell in love with the sport [and] I love the people that I met.”
Transitioning from the sport they fell in love with when they were younger, swimmers for Creek are introduced to a completely different form of practice. Junior varsity and varsity placements are determined by your times, and then each team practices at different times.
“We have one team that only practices in the morning three days a week and we have a lot of girls in that group that do other things,” head coach Karen Olmstead said. “They get their exercise on a swim team [outside of school] and they swim in a couple of meters too, but that’s not their whole life.”
Most swimmers love how their practice schedule is for their swim level. Having a passion for swimming also leads to how they see themselves leveling up in future.
“I am pretty happy on JV one, I think that at some point in my swim career, I’ll probably end up on varsity, but I’m happy where I am,” Freshman Grace Marmorstein said.
After practices, Olmstead chooses the lineup for meets and competitions, but players believe that she takes their thoughts into account when doing it.
“She’s very good about listening. [I’ll tell her that] ‘this is what I want to do [at] this meet,’ she’ll be like, ‘Okay, I’ll do the best I can to get you in there,’” Jones said.
Olmstead tries to lead her team to success wherever they are. For her, swimming goes beyond times and state championships
“I was a swim instructor for a long time and I think that that’s an important life skill to learn,” Olmstead said. “I want to make sure I’m putting people in places where they’re going to be successful.”
With so many different events and meets, Creek swimmers need to excel at many unique swimming skill sets. Swimmers have many preferences about what they are swimming, and usually end up competing in their favorite events.
“My favorite is 200 back and 100 free. Personally, I like the short events. I like freestyle and backstroke so that’s where I end up,” Jones said.
For some players, a sport comes with many challenges, mental or physical. Players often struggle with having a healthy mindset, especially when competing against other teams.
“Mentally preparing myself [has] been the hardest, even with injuries. Sometimes [if] I don’t see times that I want, I feel like I’m not achieving,” Jones said.
With challenges also comes working with your teammates. Being new to the team often shifts player’s mindsets because they get to bond with older swimmers on the team.
“Everybody getting to know each other and [going through that] learning phase of how each team works [is] what we spend the first couple of weeks on,” Olmstead said.
While finding a healthy mental and physical balance can be difficult, the swimmers hope the positives can outweigh the bad this season and the team can continue to recruit new members.
“I just really hope that [we can hold this] pattern of continuing to keep people in the program and really keep them excited and really just love swimming for Creek,” Jones said.
