By Katelyn Stearns
The girl’s swim team is undeniably the most underrated, unknown, and ultimately overlooked sport at DDHS. Ask people around the school about the swim team, and you’ll hear, “We have a swim team?” True story.
This year, the girls’ swim team had 11 swimmers. Two of those girls were new members, and only one was a freshman. Their underwhelming numbers made it difficult to score points at meets against other teams. DDHS has enough girls for a varsity team, while many other schools have a junior varsity team as well. This means they couldn’t put a girl in every event (even though they all swam several each meet) for the opportunity to score points, while many other teams could. Four seniors are graduating this year, and that will almost halve the size of the team unless they get several new members next year.
Additionally, the girl’s swim team did not have a coach until a week before practices were scheduled to begin. The previous coach, Katelyn Gonzalez, was pregnant and had to step down from coaching. For several months, the team struggled to find a coach. Most swimmers thought that they wouldn’t have a season at all. Finally, Erin Wallace agreed to be the coach. Coach Wallace, a teacher at Phoenix Middle School, has taught swim lessons for 25 years and has been a coach for 15 years. This was her first time coaching a high school team. Weeks later, she was supported by Lauren Johnson and Jake Elmer as assistant coaches.
As if all that wasn’t enough, the pool “broke” a week before sectionals, which is the most important meet of their season. When the power went out on Halloween, a valve malfunctioned and water started draining into the basement below the pool. The pool was indefinitely closed, and the swimmers had to find somewhere else to practice. They ended up having to miss the eighth period every day for the last week of their season to take a van to Beloit College to use their pool.
Still, the swimmers showed up to practice every day and put in the work. They have the longest season of all fall sports at DDHS; from August to November, and they practice the entire time. Ultimately, their work paid off. At sectionals, despite all the challenges they faced, they had an amazing meet. Coach Wallace shared that “[The girls] swam 19 races and posted 18 personal best times! Collectively, they dropped over 1 minute and 22 seconds which is difficult to do in swim.” Every girl who swam at sectionals PR’d in at least one event, and their 200 Medley Relay Team and 200 Free Relay Team PR’d as well.
The swim team also had fun practices and activities throughout the season. They had Senior Night to celebrate the graduating seniors, a practice where they swam against the cross country team, pasta dinners before every meet, and a Secret Swimmer gift exchange. Coach Wallace encourages “…anyone to come join the swim team. It is a great opportunity to get to know new people and stay in shape for other sports. Our team is very welcoming, and we have a lot of fun ….” No matter your level of swim experience, anyone can join — even if you’ve never swum in your life! And if you’re a guy, the boy’s swim team, which is a winter sport, is always looking for new members.
Today, we encourage you to seek out a swim team member and congratulate them on their season.
2024 Girl’s Swim Team Roster:
- Seniors:
- Karyssa Green
- Kora Hertz
- Kristina Stearns
- Kiera Terpstra
- Juniors:
- Catherine McGinnis
- Laura Williams
- Mackenzie Karbash
- Sophomores:
- Madeline Stark
- Aliyah Edler
- Lyla Santiago
- Freshmen:
- Emma Meinen
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