Laura Veldhof

“I started swimming in 7th grade and I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I had just moved to Michigan about 2 years prior to that and at the time swim was a lot more popular to do in middle school. Gradually people left, and they didn’t find joy in it anymore; it’s a hard sport, and it’s a hard schedule, as a matter of fact, I woke up at 5:15 this morning, kind of convenient. I think the reason I stayed was because it was the first time I felt love for a program and for the people who were in it, there was a sense of comradery – pushing through the pain of the situation. It makes it easier that we have stumbled upon a winning record, it makes it go down a lot easier. I have made many lifelong friends, discovered things about myself that I didn’t know before, and I found my limits and I’m grateful for that. Senior night is a celebration of people who have spent 4 years of their lives devoted to the sport, each other, and making the best of the situation that we’ve gone through. “Mourning” the loss of good swimmers that have passed, well they’re not dead, who have left to go to college and continue their careers, swimming or not swimming. Definitely finding a balance between the athletic and academic sides of high school. It’s a celebration of our parents and coaches and all the love and time that they put into us and helping us get through what we have chosen to spend our time doing. There are a lot more flashy sports out there, ones that get more attention. Our pool is fine, but it’s definitely outdated. We’ve put up with what we’ve been given and made the best out of it and it’s all thanks to the people who have supported us. I swim the worst events, the 200 free and the 500 free, and I’m in the free relays afterward. There are a couple of hard turnarounds in swim. Yesterday there was a kid who was in the first event, the medley relay, and he swam the fly on the third leg and he had to get out and swim the 200 free directly afterwards. One of those turnarounds is from the 500 free to the 200 free relay and I’ve done that a majority of my meets. I didn’t ask to get put in those events, it just happens, no one wants to be a distance swimmer. I have a lot of fun at our bleaching parties, it’s a more “culty” aspect of our sport, and people look at us like we’re crazy. In the years past kids would show up to school with their hair fully bleached or even bald. I have not even fully bleached yet, I’m still determining if I even want to do that or not. We always find ways to get together and have rituals and make a lot of great memories. Definitely, in the beginning, it was hard. I went from playing soccer in elementary school and playing lacrosse, those two sports are more engaging and are different every day. I did cross country in 9th grade, but I knew I wanted to do only one of them. After freshman year, there was a decision, I didn’t have it in me to do both of them at the time. Swimming really spoke to me. To be honest, I am kind of a wimp with heat, so I really didn’t like cross country. I decided to stick with swim and to be honest there wasn’t a point where I wanted to quit, I wanted to see where it would take me. I’m happy that I stuck with it. In 9th grade, I was at the bottom of the barrel in terms of speed and depth of my abilities. By sophomore year I had a really large time drop, especially with distance because the 500 is so long that any slight change in the way you are doing things makes a really big difference; It was evident that by the end of Sophomore year, I had found my groove. It was the same point where I was cemented as a distance swimmer. During practice, we split sprinters, distance swimmers, and IMers into three different big groups to try and train different things and I did all of the distance sets. Definitely, by sophomore going into junior year, there were a lot of expectations for me and I definitely lived up to them.”- Sr. Reese Jungblut