The girls swim team at Battle meets Monday-Saturday from 6:00-8:00 AM before school at the Hickman pool. Macey Hansen, senior, says “the team is so welcoming to new swimmers of any level! Regardless of your skillset, the coaches do their best to help you improve and the girls are all so welcoming of anyone wanting to give swimming a shot.”Macey Hansen has been swimming competitively since second grade. Hansen decided in her sophomore year that she wanted to continue swimming past high school. In November, Hansen decided she was going to continue pursuing her dreams, and committed to the University of Wyoming, a Division One swim team in the NCAA.
Brooklynn McElroy, freshman, said she’s been swimming since she was five years old. She wants to cut her times down on her fifty-yard and the one-hundred yard events. Lila Morris, freshman, said she started swimming when she was eight years old, then when she turned eleven, she started swimming with a club team called Columbia Swim Club where she swam more competitively. Last year, Lila realized she wanted to take swimming even more seriously and stay committed to the sport.
Macey Hansen has been swimming competitively since second grade. Hansen decided in her sophomore year that she wanted to continue swimming past high school. In November, Hansen decided she was going to continue pursuing her dreams, and committed to the University of Wyoming, a Division One swim team in the NCAA.
The team competes in tournaments around once a week for about two and a half months out of the year. Coach Taylor Birsa, says “some invites are much smaller and you only swim one time. Other invites, like our COMO Invite, had around 50 teams and we had final meets where the top 16 fastest swimmers come back the next day and swim again.” She says that in practice, the swimmers use devices that might not allow them to use their legs as much, so they have to use more arms, or vice versa. “We use different equipment that will help aid them during practice. Equipment includes hand paddles which allow you to get a better feel for the water and grab more of it at the same time. A buoy takes away the use of your legs so you concentrate on your arms. Putting fins on engages your legs to make you kick way more and to go fast.” This allows them to focus on one part of the body, so that they can get better at it then focus on the other part of the body, and altogether, the end result will hopefully show that they improved on both parts.
Coach Birsa has been swimming since she was six years old, and she went to college at Truman State University to swim as well. Birsa loves teaching them how to be better swimmers. She makes sure her swimmers know that school comes first, and they are not to swim if they are not passing. She says that her and her assistant coach, JD Estes, are goofy people and they like to have fun, so they try to keep the atmosphere light. “My goal as a coach is to have a high retention rate. I want to see the sport grow each year.” Coach Birsa says. “I want those girls who used to swim or who have never swam, come back year after year because they had a good experience.”