November 11, 2024 • 49 mins
Come sit down with us and enjoy our vibrant conversation with 100 Backstroke Record Holder Makenzie Baldwin and Varsity Girls Swimming Head Coach Steve Bowyer, on this week's episode of The 29/1.
As they bring it home in the last 2 weeks of the season, we uncover the dedication and passion that drive their success in the water. Hear about a team that grinds in the pool with a vigorous training schedule and focused commitment. Makenzie opens up about pulling for her teammates to achieve their goals, as well as her own in the 100 backstroke and the 500 freestyle. Hear about her thrilling anticipation for the OK Red Conference Meet at East Kentwood, and the upcoming State Finals at the Holland Aquatic Center. Coach Boyer offers valuable insights into the advantages of competing close to home and the memories that have shaped their journey within the swim and dive program.
Learn about the importance of strength training and the evolution of techniques emphasizing power and sprinting. As Mackenzie reflects on her high school career, we touch on her aspirations for collegiate swimming and the exciting prospects at Hope College. Makenzie provides heartfelt advice to younger athletes, and Bowyer gives a detailed exploration of the tapering process. LOL. Join us in celebrating the remarkable journey of Makenzie Baldwin as she prepares for her final high school competitions.
This episode was recorded on November 7, 2024.
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'd probably just tell myself to believe in myself
, because from a young age Istruggled with some pre-race
nerves, but honestly there's noreason for it and it all will
work out and your hard work willpay off.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives ofstudent-athletes, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
(00:37):
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Not every athlete finds the sport they were meant
to do, but when the stars align,this is what it looks like.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Today we're joined by Coach Steve Boyer and Senior
Mackenzie Baldwin.
Coach Boyer is one of the mostsuccessful coaches here at West
Ottawa, leading our girls andboys swim and dive programs, and
Mackenzie Baldwin is putting aclose on an amazing career with
the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, and her final high school swims will be here
in town, as the state finals arebeing held at the Holland
Aquatic Center November 22nd and23rd.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Coach Steve Boyer and senior Mackenzie Baldwin coming
up next on the 29.1 podcast.
Let's get it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the 29 one
podcast.
It's another beautiful day hereon the Lake shore, possibly the
best Thursday of our lives,weather wise.
We're well into late fall.
The fall sports season iswinding down.
Beautiful day here on thelakeshore, possibly the best
thursday of our lives,weather-wise.
We're well into late fall.
The fall sport season iswinding down.
Most teams have alreadyfinished.
Girls volleyball plays tonightin a district final against
(01:54):
zealand east and there's onesport here at west ottawa that
continues for at least two moreweeks and it's our honor to be a
part of their taper.
Who is it?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Coach Steve Boyer.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Mackenzie Baldwin.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Awesome Girls Varsity , swim and Dive One of the
grindiest sports out there,right?
Morning practices, eveningpractices, go, go, go, grind,
grind, grind.
So pumped to have you both inthe studio with us.
So let's get rolling.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, just to welcome you both.
Thanks for coming in.
It's really great.
Steve Boyer, 18 years at thehelm at West Ottawa, 2012 state
champion with Varsity Girls Swimand Dive.
You're a member of the MichiganSwim Coaches Association.
What do you do for that?
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I am on the executive board as the treasurer you do.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
For that.
I am on the executive board asthe treasure.
You're the treasure.
No kidding, I wouldn't havepicked you as a treasure, and
you're also the 2020 Michiganswim coach of the year, named by
the Michigan high schoolcoaches association.
I just want to say it's really,really thankful that you're
here today and I really love itwhen coaches like pour a career
into a school, and you've donethat over the past 18 years, so
thanks for doing that, and thenmckenzie backstroke and
(03:07):
freestyle yep, kind of yourspecialty.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Three-time all-state and then 2022 holland sentinel
girls swimmer of the year.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So a pretty awesome career with still yet more to
accomplish in the coming weeksyep, I've got some pretty big
goals for this next few weeks atthe end of the season, so
hopefully can accomplish them.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, you really got it coming up.
You have conference thisweekend.
When does that start, Mackenzie?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That's tomorrow.
Prelims tomorrow and thenfinals Saturday.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And then later on the state finals are at the Holland
Aquatic Center, mackenzie.
For you, you have spent a tonof time there over the years
with Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics.
What's it like for you knowingthat your last high school
competitive swims will kind ofbe in your own backyard?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You know, I was actually really excited when I
found out that I was going to beat the Aquatics Center because
obviously I spent so much timethere, really comfortable with
all the walls and knowing whereI have to be for backstroke.
I know all the coaches verywell and everyone that will be
running the meet, and so I feellike I have to be for backstroke
.
I know all the coaches verywell and everyone that'll be
running the meet, and so I feellike I have like kind of an
upper hand going into the meet,so hopefully I'll pull through.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, I like that attitude.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah, and I think, uh , you know, when we swim on the
East side, it's always a greatteam weekend.
You get to do the hotel and alot of team bonding.
But, um, we've found that whenthe kids get to sleep in their
own beds, it does give us alittle bit of an advantage.
So that's another kind of notonly being comfortable with the
pool, but you're at home, youknow, you're eating a little bit
more of the normal food thatyou normally eat, you're
(04:34):
sleeping in your own bed andthat definitely, definitely
helps.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Where has the state finals been last couple of years
?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So last year was Eastern University and the year
before that was Oakland, andthen actually my freshman year
was also the Aquatic Center.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Oh, was your freshman year too, so a little bookends
here, huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then I obviously love like staying in the hotels
with my teams, just because it'ssuch a fun experience.
But definitely being able tosleep in my own bed will
hopefully get me well rested.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
I'm a big fan when the state meet is in Holland.
It makes my day a little moremanageable.
I love going to Oakland andEastern.
We've been at Calvin for astate meet in the past, but it's
really nice to be able to justhop right downtown Holland and
get there and be there tosupport the girls, or the guys
for that matter.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, it's going to be great.
It's going to be great thatit's here.
Let's do a little get to know.
So we sometimes know each otherat West Ottawa.
We sometimes don't.
Faces are always familiar.
Steve Boyer, you've been theassistant athletic director here
at West Ottawa.
How long have you been in thatrole here?
Speaker 5 (05:36):
So I transitioned into that role just before COVID
so we're about four or fiveyears now into that role and
that kind of.
I taught US history for 15years and then we had had a part
time aquatics director that hadretired and so there was kind
of a need there, but it wasn'treally a position that I was
(05:57):
able to to move into.
And then there was some need inthe athletic department with
not having know, not having anassistant AD, and so we kind of
morphed those two jobs togetherand a natural combination and
been doing those for four orfive years now.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I personally didn't really know you that much until
the last I don't know, probablythis summer when I was hanging
out at the school here a littlebit.
We do a lot of scoreboardtraining in the summer and
you're around and just you'rewalking around with your sweaty
boys.
They'd be coming into thatathletic office.
You have a family.
You're married to three kids.
What are their names?
What grades?
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So William is in eighth grade and Nathan is in
sixth grade and they're both atHarbor Lights and Claire is a
third grader at Waka Zoo.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
All right.
What sports do your kids do?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
So Will is right now.
If you were to ask him, youknow what he's going to do in
high school?
He would tell you that he willplay water polo in the fall, he
will swim in the winter and playbaseball in the spring.
And then Nathan is kind ofstill kind of figuring some
stuff out, played football thislast fall and had a lot of fun
with that, and he plays baseballas well.
(07:04):
And he is in the water rightnow too, somewhat reluctantly.
I try to encourage him or kindof focus on the fact that
swimming is going to help makehim a better football player,
better baseball player andtrying to stay as well-rounded
as possible, and hopefully wecan keep him in the water here
too.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Moving forward, Well, when you told me about doing
baseball and swimming at thesame time, I'm like what's the
crossover?
And I figured it out.
When you're diving into secondbase, you have that arm wind and
then you just lay it out, youknow.
So you'll see that that'll bewhat's he doing.
Well, that's from from swimming.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
And then, steve, one of the projects that you've been
able to kind of dive in andI've really taken a backseat and
deferred to you on is kind ofthe strategic plan for the new
aquatics facility.
Here I know what the processlooked like when we were going
through the stadium.
What's that been like for youto kind of go through that and
(08:00):
be a part of those meetings?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yeah, it's, it's been a pretty cool experience and
very blessed to be a part ofthose meetings.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's been apretty cool experience and, uh,
very blessed to be a part of it.
Um, you know, you talk to a lotof people in a lot of districts
and when they start theseprojects, not not all coaches
get to be involved.
Um, and you know, they've kindof brought me in on day one.
You know, we literally got tobuild the vision of, you know,
what we want the pool to be,what we want the facility to be.
(08:22):
The district definitely hadsome ideas and some other
community-type stuff that'sgoing to be involved in there,
but we've really got to design apool from nothing and that's
been a pretty cool process Water.
Well, yeah, cement, tile, thosesorts of things, all of your
basic building materials.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So one of the things Steve and I were talking about
just yesterday, in fact, is theamount of tile that goes into an
aquatics facility, every squareinch of the pool deck, the pool
locker rooms.
There's so much freaking tile.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
A little bit more than that bathroom off the
kitchen hallway.
Yes, yes, way more.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
Way more.
But yeah, so we're we're about95% done with the design process
.
They've already begun some sitedevelopment stuff.
Right now we're kind oftargeting fall of 2027 as a
finished date and so we're stilla little ways away.
But it's kind of cool to seekind of where we started, where
we're at, and I'm very excitedabout the next couple of years
(09:25):
as we kind of watch that allcome together.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
And let's get to our very special guest today
Mackenzie.
Baldwin Mackenzie, you're asenior here at West Ottawa.
Can you believe you're alreadyhere?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
No, I can't Like time's been going by so fast.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, it goes away in a hurry, right?
You're a member of the NationalHonor Society and you, when I
talked to your mom, I got totalk with her.
You are in one of my favoriteclasses and programs here at
West Ottawa.
You're in Wobe N with.
Wally, what are you guys doingin class right now?
What kind of projects are youdoing?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, so I'm in Wobe N and advanced broadcasting.
So in Wobe N we're really justtrying to work on like making
shows, because we got a completeremodel of the studio.
So, we're still trying to learnthe ways of all the new
technology and it's been astruggle, but we're finally
starting to get a hang of it andget shows on the air every
single day.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Learning curve's tough right.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yes, yeah, especially because we were so used to last
year's stuff easy peasy, justclick of a button and the show
was filmed and made and postedto YouTube.
So now we have a ton of newstuff with like a podcast studio
, green screen, talk show setand all the like technologies.
Completely new cameras likeTriCast.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
What have you been doing directly yourself?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, so we rotate through the class of like every
job just to get a hang of likeeverything.
But something that I've beenreally working on is the tri
caster system, or like theswitcher, so that's like
switching the cameras when itneeds to be adding the graphics
to the show beforehand, becauseit's so much fun yeah, we used
to like edit it later and addgraphics, but now we can do it
while we're filming no kiddingyeah, it's really sweet and the
whole sound system it's all likeit's basically like the main
(11:02):
job, that like produces the show.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Oh, that's really fun .
Yeah, I mean, this is just funhere.
I mean, just looking at thestuff we're doing, it's really
fun to do that, so I'm gladyou're having a great time in
there.
You also wrote a lot of stufffor the West Ottawa, so I went
through pretty much every storythat you wrote just to read it.
Nice writing, being an athletelike you are you get interviewed
once in a while.
Right, what is it like?
(11:26):
What was it like for you to gointerview other people?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
honestly, I found it kind of hard because people like
weren't really willing to likeinterview and I just needed to
make sure that I got like whatwas needed for the articles and
to make sure that I had theright information.
But I honestly found it hardbecause usually, like, if
someone wanted to interview me,I'd be like yes, so it was hard
to like finally get like no'sand like try and search for
(11:51):
people to interview and stufflike that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, it doesn't feel good to get those.
No, it sure does not.
Oh, that's really tough.
Yeah, but you know when you,when you do this, you know you,
when you're in both sides of it,then it makes you better in the
long run, whenever you'll getinterviewed, now you're doing
great.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
right now You're killing it.
I've definitely learned from itbecause now I know when someone
wants to interview me.
I have to be on it and bring upall the details.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Can't see Baldwin, no tapering in there in here,
that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I've gotten to know your mom a little bit just
because of her involvement withthe athletic boosters.
Uh, she was a swimmer here atWest Ottawa.
What's that?
How cool is that that you getto kind of follow in her
footsteps?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I guess yeah, and she honestly was a pretty good
swimmer.
She had some records on theboard but obviously there are
broken since.
But I was able to like gofaster than her past time, so
that was pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Did you brag at her?
Oh absolutely All the time.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Like whenever she tries to like critique, I'll be
like well, I was faster than you, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That always goes on.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, I didn't know she was a swimmer, but that's
great that she was.
There's always connections hereat West Ottawa too.
Like I've never met you beforeand never talked to you, but
your brother, bryce, playedbasketball when Hudson, my son,
was a sophomore.
He played up.
So they've played on the sameteam and this is a story you
don't know, but I used to playpickup basketball with your dad
way back in the day.
(13:13):
They used to play on the Sundaynights of the Dutch Dome.
This was, uh, probably like,yeah, 2013, 2014, I had just
come off, uh, ripping myAchilles tendon and I was about
seven months back healed and I'mlike, hey, I'm just trying to
get out there again.
So we were playing at the DutchDome in about 20 minutes and
I'm like, oh boy, I'm slow.
Like you know, I couldn't getby a sloth at that point.
(13:35):
You know I was so slow and sowe're going down and I hadn't
scored all night and I finallywas on a two on one.
It's like I'm the, I'm the goodoption here, like the defenders
closing in, I got a bounce pass, took a dribble about to go in,
boom from behind, swipe, ballgoes, hits, goes off, my knee
goes out of bounds, lose theball.
Who was it?
(14:00):
It was your dad.
So I also have been a victim ofthe baldwin speed he got me so
good that day.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It was crazy my dad takes basketball very seriously
and he's fast he's still playingevery tuesday and thursday at
like 5 am I think it's stillwith like an adult like did he
play in high school and stuff Idon't, don't really know, I'm
not sure, well, he was pretty,he was pretty fast.
Still I was pretty impressed,he always films his highlights
and then posts it on YouTubeprivately, just for our family,
(14:22):
and he'll replay it over andover again in our living room of
him dunking.
I don't even know, it's sofunny.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh, that's a blast.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
He loves it.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Oh, that's hilarious.
You have some swimming recordswith your mom.
Now you have broken some ofhers too, right?
Was there one like an age groupone, or did she have a high
school record too at one point?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
She didn't have a high school record.
She didn't.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
No, okay, so it was an age group one, what?
13 or 14 years old or something.
I think so.
Yeah, so she was telling methat story.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Obviously it doesn't really mean much to you.
Because it so, I'm sure itmeant a lot to her.
One other thing we'll finish upon getting to know you.
You have two dogs.
You have two golden retrievers.
What are their names?
So the older one is bentley,he's 12, and then we have um
bristol, who's four years oldand he's actually an english
cream retriever.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So he's like very white and they're both super
fluffy yeah, when I was talkingto your mom about it it was like
you got the.
You got the, the dog you've hadfor a long time, but you went
and got the buddy dog yes thatwas real nice.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Well, this is a very golden retriever friendly room.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I have a golden retriever, eight-year-old
hendrix uh, juniper or juni,over here she's six we don't do
dogs at our house and then ofcourse we got bentley and
bristol.
So but hey, let's uh move intothe team, all right, and then
we'll talk about this together.
So this year it's team.
You have like a one in fourrecord in the okay, red coach.
But you said you know you'vebeen close in many of your dual
(15:45):
meets this year, right, so a lotof close ones just not quite
getting there.
Maybe between you and Mackenziecan you guys talk about some of
the girls on the team who arehaving nice seasons and you know
how they're contributing.
May you want to go first,mackenzie.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, so I swim with most of them over the summer.
So I've seen the hard work thateveryone's put in and this
season, honestly, it's reallyshown.
Like, for example, lily Perez.
She's gotten personal bests indual meets, which that doesn't
happen very often, so reallyproud of her for that.
And then we have an exchangestudent, sophie Bach.
We're super excited to whenstudent Sophie Bach.
We're super excited to when.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I found out that we're getting an exchange from
Denmark.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I think, yeah, denmark, and she's a great asset
to the team.
We had a kind of a hole in thefly and she filled that role
right away.
So super excited for whatconference and state will hold
for everybody that's fun forthem.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
How about you coach any other other names?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
yeah, I think senior Bailey Davis is kind of anchored
, our distance crew swimming the200 and the 500.
Izzy Steele is swimming both IMand breaststroke, same events
as Lily is.
And looking at you know, thenice part about this team is we
have a lot of seniors who have alot of good experience which,
as you're heading into the endof the season as a coach, you're
(16:55):
always a little bit morecomfortable with things, knowing
that.
You know the kids have beenthrough this before.
They kind of know what toexpect and we just have a lot of
good leadership.
In terms of the conference meet,you know you talked about, you
know, our one in four record.
We got the psych sheetyesterday and kind of looking
through that psych sheet,rockford has kind of, you know,
solidified themselves as the topteam in the conference.
(17:16):
But what's kind of exciting isthere's a pretty you know on if
you were to score out the psychsheet and obviously it's not
swum on paper and things aregoing to happen at the meet.
But you know we're about 13points away from second place
and so that's kind of you know,as we go into this meet, you
know I think our big goal as ateam is just to you know, not
only try to have as manypersonal bests and best times
(17:39):
and those sorts of things, butsee if we can't beat some of
those teams that we lost to inthe dual meet season.
And you know, the more we can,the more we can pick off, the
better.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah, the league is just so competitive in every
sport.
The conference meet is always alot of fun for me to get over
there to get over for prelimsbecause I get to see everybody
swim.
I'm really looking forward totomorrow over at east kentwood.
Mckenzie, can you talk to us alittle bit?
I mentioned it earlier as wewere kind of introing.
You guys grind and I don't knowif, like the normal person,
(18:14):
understands the amount of timeit takes to be a swimmer of your
caliber.
Could you just walk us throughlike what a week might look like
for you?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah.
So every Monday and Wednesdaywe have AM practice at five 45
to seven o'clock, which it'spretty hard to wake up for it,
but you know, in the end it'sdefinitely worth it.
And then after school we havethree to five 30.
On Mondays and Wednesdays aswell, we have lifts from five to
five 30, and then Tuesday,Thursday or Tuesdays we have
practice three to five 30.
(18:45):
And then Thursdays are usuallyour duels, with an occasional
Tuesday duel as well, and thenFriday and Saturday we get up
and grind for practice again.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Yeah, we had a Sarah Mara on, who is a gymnast at the
university of Minnesota, andthose two sports are really the
only ones that I would saycompare to each other the amount
of hours and time that they putin.
Just a lot of credit to you andthe other girls on the team for
kind of accepting that andgoing all in.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Yeah, I think the one thing people don't understand
either is, for the most ofpractice, they're staring at the
bottom of the pool, which isnot an easy thing to do, right
that's why tile is important.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah right, the tile choice matters here.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
So it definitely takes a special person to be a
swimmer right.
It's an incredible amount ofwork.
Swimmer right it's you knowit's incredible amount of work.
The cool part about that is,you know, after the kids go
through the process and we getto the end and we go through the
taper and um, you know they seethe success that comes from
that.
You know, I think everyonelooks back and you know they're
glad, glad they did it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's so rewarding, Like not just like physically,
like knowing like, oh, I got apersonal best, but like mentally
, knowing that you're able tolike get yourself up early in
the morning and then getyourself back to the pool after
school.
It's, it's really rewarding.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
How do you handle as you're going through and you
have, you know, am practice acouple of days a week.
You've got the afterschoolpractice.
You're also a very accomplishedstudent here at West Ottawa.
How do you manage your time?
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, I mean, obviously school comes first, so
I make sure to after practice.
If I have any work that needsto be done, I make sure to get
all that done.
But then I also want to get tobed early because I don't want
to be tired and need to makesure that I'm well rested for
practice and just the meats andhave my body be ready.
So there's a ton of differentaspects to swimming and that's
not just the swimming part.
(20:35):
Whether that's eating healthy,like the swimming part, whether
that's eating healthy, likebalancing your time, making sure
you're getting enough rest.
It all kind of comes together,though.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
And not to mention the part-time job.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Oh yes.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
You do a part-time job too.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
A little peach wave Frozen yogurt.
Oh, let's go.
Well, that's a good spot to beat.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, that'll work.
There's a when I sat down withCoach and your other coach the
other night and they weresharing with me some of the real
specifics of what makes up apractice, Can you talk about I
call them yardage swims I don'tknow if that's the term or not.
I could be wrong and thenresistance bands and buckets.
Can you just explain what thatis and how you train with those
(21:14):
like that?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
How I train with the bands.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Well, tell them what a yardage swim is, how long it
is, all that type of stuff, oris that not a thing?
Speaker 5 (21:22):
so I think yeah, I think what I think kind of what
he's referring to is, you know,like on a monday, you know we
might do a set of 2100s or, um,you know it might be a set of
two 400s and six 200s or youknow kind of those threshold
type swims.
So I think he's looking at youknow how.
You know what does you knowsome of those sets look like?
You know, maybe you know what'syour favorite set or you know
(21:45):
what sets do you like most?
And then, um, we talked alittle bit about some of the,
the resistance work that we doand just what exactly that is.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, so we usually like split up each day of like
what we're like focusing on, solike mondays are like threshold,
so super long, but also likefast keeping a good pace, so
that could look like 2100s, likeyou said, or 2050s.
Usually is am practice, butthat's another one that's pretty
hard.
And then the resistance bands weattach like a cord or like a
(22:16):
belt to us and we swim acrossthe pool and it is basically
pulling you back with likeweight on your back, so it can
get pretty challenging, but thenthe fun part is that, like once
you reach the other side, itpulls you back really fast.
You can kind of just floatthere, that's funny.
Yeah, it'll just pull you backreally fast.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
It has to feel amazing when you take that belt
off and you just swim withnothing holding you back.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Yeah, it's a good training, probably mentally too,
right?
Hey, I am pretty fast, get thisoff me, I'm going.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So the cords are just like an elastic band.
But then we also have buckets,which is like a bucket that you
put weight in, and sometimes youcan put water in it, but we've
been putting weight belts in itOkay.
And then you just if you gosuper heavy, usually you work on
underwaters or breakouts, sothen you can barely only make it
to halfway because of how heavythe weight is when are these
buckets when you're swimming?
They're just on the side of thepool.
It's like a.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
It's attached to a pulley system.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
So they call them power towers or power racks.
So it's just a metal rack.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
I feel like I'm at an 80s rock concert there.
All right, keep going, sorry.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Yeah, so just a metal , aluminum rack that has two
buckets that are attached to youknow, basically attached to the
string that's attached to you.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
That's really sweet, it really is.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Is that common.
Most teams will be doing thatkind of training.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Yeah, I's something that, um, you know, swimming,
like any sport you know, hasevolved over time and you know,
old school swimming is justgrinding out yards and it used
to be, you know, the common, youknow thought was the more yards
you do, the faster you swim.
And swimming is definitelygoing to more of a sprint focus,
Um, and not, and part of thatsprint focus is, you know, that
(23:56):
power aspect as well.
You know, and the stretch cordsand the buckets are kind of a
key piece of that, that maybeless yards, more intent, more
focus, and so it's kind ofsomething that's really kind of
come about over the last five toten years.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Is that a fun thing for you to do?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah, I love it, it's definitely different than just
grinding out thousands of yards.
So it's super fun, but it'salso super beneficial.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Yeah, definitely a nice break from the traditional
swim sets.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you're also one of the teams here at West Ottawa
that has really always embracedthe work in the weight room.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
You guys are in there a couple days a week.
Yeah, we try to lift three daysa week and that's something
we've done for a really longtime.
You know, since Frank's come onas our strength coach, I feel
like he's really helped us kindof hone in exactly what we're
doing, what days, what lifts,you know.
So we've always we've alwaysbeen pretty big on the strength
training and I think Frank hashelped us kind of dial that in
(24:54):
kind of to that next level, um,and especially when it comes to
taper time in the weight roomyou guys doing a lot of like a
lot of back, shoulders, legsprimarily.
Yeah, um, kind of.
One of the big things withswimming is when you're doing
all those yards, you'reconstantly building up the front
of the shoulder, the chest, um,and so a lot of the things we
(25:15):
do in the weight room are tokind of balance out what we're
doing in the water.
And so a lot of the things wedo in the weight room are to
kind of balance out what we'redoing in the water.
So your back, shoulders, youknow, and then legs are like any
sport, you know, legs are key.
We do a lot of underwater kickwork in practice and I think a
lot of the things we do in theweight room help complement that
in terms of leg strength.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
I want to talk about one other fun thing about your
team Assistant coach, drewJohnson.
As long as I've been here atWest Auto, he's always been one
of my favorite people here, likehe just is.
What is it like as a swimmer tohave him as a coach?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You know he's super funny.
He's always there to make jokesand make practice a little bit.
You know, lighthearted andsuper entertaining just to watch
him walk around and kind ofyell at us.
But all in good heart, goodintentions, but it's definitely
super fun to have him around.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, and these guys are like a stepbrothers movie
those two right.
Well, didn't you guys make at-shirt or something one year?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
The guys, the guys, the boys, the boys did Okay,
they definitely have a bromance,yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And you guys don't call him coach Johnson, right?
What's his?
Uh, what's his nickname Dre.
Yeah, it's hardcore right there.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Coach Dre.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
All right.
Well, the one other thing we'lldo with the team, though it's a
very large team too right?
So how many swimmers?
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Up 27, I think, think .
But we've had teams as many as50, 55 before.
Got you Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
So it's still a big team.
Yeah, I noticed at the seniornight that Grand Haven team was
really big.
Yeah, I was just looking at thedifferences that day.
All right, let's go toMackenzie your swimming career.
Let's talk primarily about youfor a little while.
It'll be fun.
This is part of the WOBNspotlight, we'll call it that.
When you first started swimming, your mom told me you were fast
(27:00):
, right away.
Right.
What was that like for you whenyou first started swimming?
It's like, oh, what's going onhere?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
You know, honestly I didn't really realize because I
had no idea what was good or howanything worked for swimming.
But I just remember everyonewould try to convince me to
start swimming for USA, but Ijust had no want in it.
I obviously I liked swimming,but it was just age group and
I'd practice like two times aweek and go to the little dual
(27:26):
meets that they have for theeight and unders.
But then finally, I think whenI was like 10, I joined the USA
team and then that's when Ireally like set off and realized
that like this could besomething for me.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, your mom said earlier that there was some
resistance to becoming a swimfamily.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Right when you started doing that.
What type of travel?
What's it like?
What's the season, off seasonlike, when you're not swimming
for school?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, so USA, same practice schedule, just like
every day.
We don't have mornings, though,but then our club meets are a
lot bigger.
Instead of, like the duels,it's like all the teams in the
area.
So it calls for a lot moretravel and then, especially like
, as you like, move on and likeget to the higher championship
meets, you have to go far away.
(28:09):
So, like recently, I've been inIndianapolis, ohio State, like
all over the place, which alsocalls for a lot of hotels.
So it's honestly a lot of moneyto like a lot more than school,
just trying to like travel andthen trying to like swim, well,
while you're like not close tohome, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
And then were there, as you were kind of coming up
through the program, were theregirls that were swimming at West
Ottawa that you kind of reallylooked at and were like I want
to be like that person.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, there were a ton of people like obviously
like people in my cousin's grade, just because I knew them and I
was familiar with them, like,for example, caroline Sisson
really good example, and she'sinsane.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
So when anybody asks you know what's the sport that
West Ottawa can kind of hangtheir hat on.
From the day this building well, not this building, but the
school district came intoexistence, Swimming has been a
program that has been very goodfor us over the years.
How about when you were kind ofjust starting out your freshman
(29:11):
year, Like who were some of theseniors maybe, that you looked
up to or took you under theirwing?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, Freshman year is definitely Maddie Remen
Schneider and Kendall Vara.
They were the seniors at thetime and they were great
teammates to have and great rolemodels and I definitely looked
up to them a ton, especiallybecause the year prior I trained
with Kendall a little bit, sokind of knew her a little bit
before the season started.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Has that had an effect on you as you turned into
a junior and a senior?
How has that affected you asyou have younger swimmers on the
team?
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, it definitely showed me what I want to be to
them and how I want them to lookup to us and just setting good
examples.
And I miss the seniors from myfreshman year very much and I
kind of want to be that personLike, oh, there's a hole in our
team now.
So that's just kind of how Ifelt.
Like not having those same,like the same teammates is
(30:02):
definitely hard.
Go moving on with differentpeople.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, you're in a different role.
You're the one, you're the onebeing looked up to, right and
and trying to include everybody.
So you had a great season as afreshman and a sophomore.
You know, you came sophomore.
You were Swimmer of the Yearright in the area Holland
Sentinel.
What was those two years likefor you getting started?
Were you a little surprised atwhat you could do?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, it was a really exciting time because, you know
, going into high school I hadno idea what the competition
would be like.
You know, high school is very,very different from what I had
like experienced before was very, very different from what I'd
experienced before.
So I kind of just went into itjust hoping to get personal
bests and just keep improving,but to realize that I was
actually able to keep up withthe other girls, the seniors at
(30:46):
the time, it was a reallyexciting time.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And coach.
Then in her junior year shesets that record From a swimmer
that you had coached yearsbefore.
Can you tell us about, maybethe two of them, how they
compare, from a swimmer that youhad coached years before.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Can you tell us about , maybe, the two of them, how
they compare?
And yeah, you know, one of theone of the interesting things
about you know, especially highschool girls swimming is a lot
of times you will see athleteshave success early, you know,
sometimes as eighth graders,freshmen, sophomores, um, and it
can.
It can be extremely challengingsometimes then to get best times
as you move forward in yourhigh school swimming career, and
so that varsity record forMackenzie was definitely kind of
(31:24):
the goal for junior yearbecause she had been close the
previous year and ColleenVanderpool had had that record
prior.
She was on our 2012 statechampionship team.
So that was, you know, the twoare probably a little bit
different swimmers, but one ofthe things that Kenzie's been
(31:45):
working on to try to get thatrecord is her underwaters, and
so Kenzie is probably one of thefastest backstrokers I've seen
between the flags.
But the underwater kick wassomething that had to kind of be
developed over her high schoolcareer and I think she made some
good strides in that last year,which I think helped her to
(32:06):
kind of, you know, take thatnext step and break that record,
and I think she's made someeven more strides in that, you
know, heading into this season.
So we're kind of looking, youknow, looking forward to the end
here this year to see kind ofhow that will you know, will
impact her swims at the at theconference and state meet this
year.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I know, whenever I watch the Olympic swimmers as a
person who is not a swimmerdoing that I always am amazed at
the turnover of those feet.
It's just this.
It's just popping the wholetime.
That's gotta be hard to do.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Is that it's just popping the whole time.
That's got to be hard to do isthat it's?
It's really hard because notonly are you underwater and
having to hold your breath, butit's the fastest time in your
whole race is like pushing offthat wall, so you really have to
make the best of it, but it'sdefinitely a challenge yeah, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Was that getting that record?
Is that one of your favoritememories so far in your career?
Do you have any other thingsthat stand out for you?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I'd say that was probably the best memory for me
because, you know, going infreshman year I saw that record
how I mean I had quite a bit oftime to drop, but I knew that I
looked up to Colleen because shewas a part of that state
championship team and I knewthat was something that I was
looking forward to achieve.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
You do.
That was a great memory.
And then every once in a while,you get something that comes up
that you didn't expect.
Let's talk about senior night,which was just last week.
Right, you had a kind of anunexpected thing come up, where
you had an unexpected challengesitting in front of you.
Coach, do you want to maybe setthe stage a little?
Speaker 5 (33:26):
bit yeah.
So I had gotten a call from theGrand Haven coach earlier in
the week that he was going tohave an athlete that was going
to be suiting up to try to gether state cut, which I was 100%
in agreement with.
It's kind of one of thoseunwritten rules that you don't
wear a tech suit in a dual meetand if you're going to, you have
the courtesy to let the otherteam know, because they can have
(33:49):
an impact on the swim in someregards, on the outcome of the
meet.
And so it's Kenzie's seniornight, lots of family.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
It's senior night.
This is your night.
This is your teen's night.
Someone's got on a tech suit.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Lots and lots of family and friends in attendance
and you know so HunterBackstroke comes up and you know
this young lady has the suit onwhich you know Kenzie's a
pretty confident swimmer and youknow a faster swimmer, you know
, than the lady that or theyoung lady that she was going
against.
But it still adds a little bitof pressure because you know
(34:23):
you're tired, you're a couple ofweeks out from taper.
It just provides a little bitmore pressure to to perform and
you know it was.
She goes a season best time offirst time she had been 57 this
season.
You know wins the event and soit was kind of cool to see that.
You know that young lady tryingto get her cut which is fine.
(34:45):
You know kind of, you know, gaveher the you know the pressure
to, you know, to go a seasonbest time, you know, at senior
night.
And then, interestingly enough,we get to the 400 free relay
and both Kenzie and this otheryoung lady are the anchors on
the relay and Grand Haven wasprobably about a half a pool
(35:06):
length ahead of us.
This young lady, still in hertech suit, and Kenzie, dives in
and, you know, very methodically, throughout the race, kind of
continues to gain on her, gainon her, gain on her, and then
ends up touching her out by oneone hundredth of a second and so
just kind of a cool way to end,you know, your dual meet career
at home, you know, in front ofthe home crowd and you know
(35:29):
everyone's on their feet andcheering and just kind of a cool
way to end things.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
What was going through your mind as an athlete
with all that he just talkedabout?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah.
So obviously, like there wastalk that she was going to be in
a suit and obviously that kindof scares you because you're
like this, like doesn't happen.
But honestly I just used it asmore motivation for me
personally because obviously Iwanted to get the win and I
wanted to go fast time but alsothe motivation that, oh, I was
helping her out, oh, I like Ican help her, I can help her
achieve her goal.
And that's kind of like the wayI looked at it, Like, oh, she
wants to swim next to me, Likehopefully I can help her get her
(36:03):
cut, but also do wellpersonally.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh, I never would have thought of that.
That's part of your approach.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Well, aren't you a good person?
Speaker 5 (36:11):
It was a it was a super cool experience.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
So I've been around enough to know wait a minute,
why is that girl got a tech suit?
I actually went up to Steve andsaid, steve, why is this girl
suiting up?
And it was all because of thetaper and conference meet and
state meet and all of thosetypes of things.
But then as you touched her outin that relay, the final race
(36:34):
in that pool, just all of thegirls around and the excitement
on the team, it was reallyreally quite awesome just to be
down there on the deck and be apart of it.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, and one one hundreds is literally like a
fingernail, like ahead of her,so it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah.
Yeah, We've had one of thoseclose touch offs before my my
first year here at West Ottawawhen I was at the Holland
Aquatic Center.
Right State championship.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Do you ever have that often where you get a little
extra fire?
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, I mean definitely competitors have
something to do with that.
Like, if I see, oh, that girl'sin a suit, like it's going to
motivate me a little bit more.
But it also just depends on,like, what my goals are
personally.
Like, if I have a goal goinginto the season and I know that
this is my last chance, orsomething like that, then I'll
definitely get more pumped andworking hard to achieve it.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
What are your own personal goals, going into
conference and then goingpresumably into state?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, into conference .
I definitely want to get thatconference title in the hunter
back and honestly just improvemy time for the season and then
into state, hopefully get topthree, and I want to get down to
a 55 again in the hunter backand re-break my own record.
You feel like you can do it?
I think so.
You got that home cooking, yes.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You should be pretty good with that.
What coach shared with me theother night too is this was
something I didn't know, didn'tknow about, but when people go
to state they can only do twoevents correct.
So you kind of that who is inwhat event?
Variable right, like who'sdoing what.
Can you guys just briefly maybeexplain that to the listening
crowd?
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, so you can only obviously pick two events, and
a lot of, like the top swimmersqualify in more than one event.
So it's honestly just going tobe a gamble to see who's in what
event and who's in front of you, who's behind you, or oh, the
person that should win isactually in a different event,
so then you get a better chance.
So it's honestly kind of nice,because I know like there's
other sports that like everyonejust competes together, but it's
(38:23):
definitely different knowingthat my top competitor in the
hunter back might not actuallyswim the backstroke.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
That's quite something yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
And I, and I think you know part of that in.
You know, as you know, shetalked about being top three and
going her best time.
I think you got to focus on thethings that you can control,
right.
And so, going into that meet,she's going to prepare to swim
the 100 backstroke and she'sgoing to set that goal of going
to 55.
And you know, and she's talkingabout, top three is, you know,
is a state championship possible?
(38:52):
It is, and you know part ofthat will possibly depend on who
swims it.
All of those things kind ofcome into play every year.
So for her to have that mindsetof setting those goals that you
know are in her control, andthen the rest will kind of play
itself out.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Once you get through that, you'll probably go back to
doing some more training, butnext year, of course.
You made your decision lastspring, I believe right, and
you're going to Hope College.
So congratulations.
First of all, thank you.
I mean, not everybody gets todo college athletics.
Kudos 3%, is it 3%?
Wow, so good for you.
I mean, you've been gettinglooked at since you were younger
(39:29):
.
When I talked to your mom aboutit, you were kind of like most
kids from this area and it'slike I'm not going to school
this close to home, right, yeah,but when you walked around
campus, things started to change.
Can you just maybe share thatwith us?
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah.
So the first time I had eventhought about college I
immediately said I would nevergo to Hope Way too close.
I mean, I had never been on thecampus.
I was like too small, too closeto home, it's absolutely just
not a chance.
But campus, I was like toosmall, too, too close to home,
like it's absolutely just not achance.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
But then, after like touring a couple of different
schools.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I realized that you went out to Oakland, right, and
I, after touring a couple ofschools and just like reaching
out to like their coaches, Iknew that like hope was like
where I wanted to be and touringthe campus it's super nice and
I didn't know that the small,like homey feel is just the best
fit for me.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
It's a gorgeous campus.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
And what kind of things did you do on that tour
day?
Did you do any special thingsthat stood out?
Speaker 1 (40:20):
On the tour day I just toured like the campus but
previously I had like been to acouple like volleyball and like
basketball games with the teamand honestly, just the team
culture really like solidifiedmy decision because they were
like family and I could totallysee myself like hanging out with
all of them.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Oh, that's really great, so you could see yourself
fitting in.
Yes, and it's a great academicschool, just a wonderful place
to be the campus.
The downtown head coach, jakeTabor you really liked his style
as well, right.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Yes, I really, really liked Tabor ever since he
reached out to me for the firsttime, I think.
I mean his kids were on the sameclub team as us, so like we
could kind of talk as like notrecruiting right so that
definitely helped a lot becauseI was able to build like a good
relationship with him before therecruiting process, which, if
you know, like coaches can'treach out to until you're a
(41:08):
certain age, but like thiswasn't really anything about
college at all, which was reallynice, and I learned like he's a
good person, he cares about meand then, once the recruiting
process started, he is a reallyreally good recruiter and he
would try any chance he got toconvince me to come to Hope.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
It's nice to be wanted.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Right, yeah, and it felt good.
And also he set up all thedifferent things with the teams
for me and it, just like yousaid, it felt good to be wanted.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
They have a pretty good uh team there too, right?
I mean they're 13th ranked indivision three right now.
I think it's four straight miaachampionships, a lot of top 20
finishes nationally.
When you get there, do youbelieve you'll have the chance
to be an impactful swimmer early?
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I think so.
I hope to.
I hope to be.
Yes, I definitely got to workhard to solidify my relay spots
and one of my goals for collegeswimming is to make it to NCAAs,
so hopefully I can earn my spotthere and impact the team in
that way.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
What are your plans on a career?
Where are you going to take it?
Hope, or are you just an idea?
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yeah, so.
I'm thinking of like exercise,science, physical therapy kind
of route.
Honestly, I haven't really donemuch like thinking about it,
but definitely something and youdon't have to know this early
definitely something along thelines of.
Speaker 4 (42:25):
That's really sweet, steve.
What's it like for you to havea student athlete who's going to
go on and compete at thecollege level but is going to be
kind of right here and you'llbe able to continue to kind of
follow Kenzie and her journey?
Speaker 5 (42:38):
Yeah, it's, it's pretty exciting, I think.
I think that Kenzie made agreat choice.
We had a lot of conversationsabout college swimming and you
know what was going to be theright fit for her and I think at
the end of the day she she knewearly on that hope was was the
right fit and I think you skillset is now her work ethic, all
(42:59):
of those things.
She's going to have atremendous impact on their
program and there's a reasonthat Coach Tabor contacted her
as much as he did and recruitedher as hard as he did, because
she is going to go in there andhave a chance to be on those
NCAA relays.
She's going to have anexcellent chance of making the
NCAA meet individually as welland it is kind of cool to every
(43:21):
now and then I'd be able to popover and see a meet and maybe
even one of these days, hope maycome over our way for a meet in
our new aquatic facilities.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah, I was going to say normally at the end of a
podcast I'll say, hey, it wasnice to sit down with you, we'll
watch you from afar.
But it's not going to be fromafar.
You're going to be swimming atthe Dow and then, very likely at
some point you will circle back, driving probably close to that
same parking lot that you'vebeen hitting for years, and
there'll be this brand newaquatic facility there and
(43:50):
you'll likely compete.
How do you feel about that?
That that might just be hereand you get to come back and
swim there likely.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
I'm super excited when I found out there was going
to be a new pool.
I mean, not very many schoolshave 50-meter pools, so for West
Ottawa to be one of those, it'sinsane.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
And are you part of the tile committee?
Speaker 5 (44:10):
She just bought stock in tile.
She should be, you should be.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
You should have a special role, special title.
How about you?
Speaker 5 (44:20):
Steve, are you looking at well, we kind of
answered that already, but Imean you're looking forward to
that new facility.
Oh, absolutely, we're very,very blessed, you know, to be
getting a 50-meter facility.
And just to kind of think about, you know the different events
that we're going to be able tohost.
You know I love coaching.
I'm also a big fan of swimming.
Coaching, I'm also a big fan ofswimming.
And so to think about you know,possibly you know, hosting an
(44:43):
MIAA championship and being ableto be there for that, and you
know help host that meet andwatch those meets.
It's going to be a lot of funand it's really going to be
spectator friendly, right theway it's being developed, yeah,
so we're going to be the onlyyou know, the only current
facility in Michigan that willhave kind of stadium-like
seating and basically seating onboth sides of the pool.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
East Grand Rapids a little bit has that setup.
Speaker 5 (45:03):
but this will be a much different feel and it's
going to be an environmentunlike any other when we host
big meets.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Kenzie, as we finish, I have to say it's been really
fun to sit down with you.
You talked about you looking upto older swimmers when you got
started.
You've been that person for alittle while now.
A lot of young swimmers look upto you.
I try to come up with a uniquequestion that I thought would be
good to finish up.
So are there any words ofadvice that a senior, mackenzie
Baldwin, would give to a seventhor eighth grade or freshman,
(45:35):
mackenzie Baldwin?
What might you say to thatyoung girl now that you've come
this far and done what you'vedone?
What might you say to her?
Speaker 1 (45:42):
That's a really hard question, you know I don't know.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
I'm challenging you.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
I'd probably just tell myself to believe in myself
, because from a young age Istruggled with some pre-race
nerves, but honestly there's noreason for it and it all will
work out and your hard work willpay off.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
That's a great answer .
Speaker 3 (46:04):
That pause was worth it.
There was a thing on Steve Jobsthe other day and they asked
him a question.
He paused for like a minute andthat's you know when you're
getting good answers whensomeone takes that long pause.
Coach, you got to coach for thelast four years a swimmer of
this caliber.
What's it been like for you?
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Yeah, it's been definitely a rewarding journey
for me as a coach.
Not every day do you get ayoung lady that just comes in
from day one and just wants towork hard is an incredible
teammate and the things thatshe's brought to our program.
You can't always teach that andit's been a lot of fun and I'm
(46:41):
really, really excited about thenext couple of weeks to watch
her kind of close out her WestOttawa career.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
We want to really thank you both for coming on.
You have a busy two days aheadof you, starting tomorrow, and
then what a taper trainbalancing act for the next
couple weeks.
Speaker 5 (46:59):
I love that he's trying.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
He's trying really hard to get the swim lingo.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
So, if you're listening, I was able to sit
down with these two coaches heretonight and they just talk
about taper all the time, so I'mlike I've got to find a place
for taper.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
And maybe, Steve, will you just give us maybe a
snapshot of what a taper is forthe folks that are not ingrained
in swim.
Speaker 5 (47:19):
So, kind of simply put, a taper is basically
resting up to perform your best,and the primary reason you
don't taper multiple timesthroughout the season is because
we do bring them down to apoint where if we try to swim
again in two weeks it's notgoing to be as good as it was
this weekend, and so it's, youknow, it's a little bit more
(47:40):
than just a simple rest for abig dual meet or that sort of
thing.
So really we've kind of, youknow, we've been doing the
morning practices, the three tofive, 30, the weight room, and
when we get to taper we cut outthe morning practices.
And you know, the first week oftaper is still.
We're still pretty putting insome pretty good yardage, but
we're coming down a little bit.
(48:01):
In the weight room we're notgoing to get on those.
You know power racks and youknow really break them down from
a resistance standpoint.
And then you know, probably thetwo to three days before their,
you know their meet, we, youknow it's just a lot of warmup
and warm down and you know, justgetting the body ready to to
(48:21):
swim fast.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
All right, I think the explanation of the taper was
actually longer than the taperitself.
Yeah, all right.
Well, hey, thanks for bothcoming on.
It's an absolute pleasure.
We'll be watching you over thenext couple of days and at state
at the aquatic center.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
Thank you guys, thanks so much, thanks for
having us.
I'd probably just tell myself to believe in myself
, because from a young age Istruggled with some pre-race
nerves, but honestly there's noreason for it and it all will
work out and your hard work willpay off.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives ofstudent-athletes, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
(00:37):
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Not every athlete finds the sport they were meant
to do, but when the stars align,this is what it looks like.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Today we're joined by Coach Steve Boyer and Senior
Mackenzie Baldwin.
Coach Boyer is one of the mostsuccessful coaches here at West
Ottawa, leading our girls andboys swim and dive programs, and
Mackenzie Baldwin is putting aclose on an amazing career with
the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yeah, and her final high school swims will be here
in town, as the state finals arebeing held at the Holland
Aquatic Center November 22nd and23rd.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Coach Steve Boyer and senior Mackenzie Baldwin coming
up next on the 29.1 podcast.
Let's get it.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the 29 one
podcast.
It's another beautiful day hereon the Lake shore, possibly the
best Thursday of our lives,weather wise.
We're well into late fall.
The fall sports season iswinding down.
Beautiful day here on thelakeshore, possibly the best
thursday of our lives,weather-wise.
We're well into late fall.
The fall sport season iswinding down.
Most teams have alreadyfinished.
Girls volleyball plays tonightin a district final against
(01:54):
zealand east and there's onesport here at west ottawa that
continues for at least two moreweeks and it's our honor to be a
part of their taper.
Who is it?
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Coach Steve Boyer.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Mackenzie Baldwin.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Awesome Girls Varsity , swim and Dive One of the
grindiest sports out there,right?
Morning practices, eveningpractices, go, go, go, grind,
grind, grind.
So pumped to have you both inthe studio with us.
So let's get rolling.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, just to welcome you both.
Thanks for coming in.
It's really great.
Steve Boyer, 18 years at thehelm at West Ottawa, 2012 state
champion with Varsity Girls Swimand Dive.
You're a member of the MichiganSwim Coaches Association.
What do you do for that?
Speaker 5 (02:41):
I am on the executive board as the treasurer you do.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
For that.
I am on the executive board asthe treasure.
You're the treasure.
No kidding, I wouldn't havepicked you as a treasure, and
you're also the 2020 Michiganswim coach of the year, named by
the Michigan high schoolcoaches association.
I just want to say it's really,really thankful that you're
here today and I really love itwhen coaches like pour a career
into a school, and you've donethat over the past 18 years, so
thanks for doing that, and thenmckenzie backstroke and
(03:07):
freestyle yep, kind of yourspecialty.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Three-time all-state and then 2022 holland sentinel
girls swimmer of the year.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So a pretty awesome career with still yet more to
accomplish in the coming weeksyep, I've got some pretty big
goals for this next few weeks atthe end of the season, so
hopefully can accomplish them.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, you really got it coming up.
You have conference thisweekend.
When does that start, Mackenzie?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
That's tomorrow.
Prelims tomorrow and thenfinals Saturday.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And then later on the state finals are at the Holland
Aquatic Center, mackenzie.
For you, you have spent a tonof time there over the years
with Michigan Lakeshore Aquatics.
What's it like for you knowingthat your last high school
competitive swims will kind ofbe in your own backyard?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You know, I was actually really excited when I
found out that I was going to beat the Aquatics Center because
obviously I spent so much timethere, really comfortable with
all the walls and knowing whereI have to be for backstroke.
I know all the coaches verywell and everyone that will be
running the meet, and so I feellike I have to be for backstroke
.
I know all the coaches verywell and everyone that'll be
running the meet, and so I feellike I have like kind of an
upper hand going into the meet,so hopefully I'll pull through.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, I like that attitude.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Yeah, and I think, uh , you know, when we swim on the
East side, it's always a greatteam weekend.
You get to do the hotel and alot of team bonding.
But, um, we've found that whenthe kids get to sleep in their
own beds, it does give us alittle bit of an advantage.
So that's another kind of notonly being comfortable with the
pool, but you're at home, youknow, you're eating a little bit
more of the normal food thatyou normally eat, you're
(04:34):
sleeping in your own bed andthat definitely, definitely
helps.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Where has the state finals been last couple of years
?
Speaker 1 (04:40):
So last year was Eastern University and the year
before that was Oakland, andthen actually my freshman year
was also the Aquatic Center.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Oh, was your freshman year too, so a little bookends
here, huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then I obviously love like staying in the hotels
with my teams, just because it'ssuch a fun experience.
But definitely being able tosleep in my own bed will
hopefully get me well rested.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
I'm a big fan when the state meet is in Holland.
It makes my day a little moremanageable.
I love going to Oakland andEastern.
We've been at Calvin for astate meet in the past, but it's
really nice to be able to justhop right downtown Holland and
get there and be there tosupport the girls, or the guys
for that matter.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, it's going to be great.
It's going to be great thatit's here.
Let's do a little get to know.
So we sometimes know each otherat West Ottawa.
We sometimes don't.
Faces are always familiar.
Steve Boyer, you've been theassistant athletic director here
at West Ottawa.
How long have you been in thatrole here?
Speaker 5 (05:36):
So I transitioned into that role just before COVID
so we're about four or fiveyears now into that role and
that kind of.
I taught US history for 15years and then we had had a part
time aquatics director that hadretired and so there was kind
of a need there, but it wasn'treally a position that I was
(05:57):
able to to move into.
And then there was some need inthe athletic department with
not having know, not having anassistant AD, and so we kind of
morphed those two jobs togetherand a natural combination and
been doing those for four orfive years now.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I personally didn't really know you that much until
the last I don't know, probablythis summer when I was hanging
out at the school here a littlebit.
We do a lot of scoreboardtraining in the summer and
you're around and just you'rewalking around with your sweaty
boys.
They'd be coming into thatathletic office.
You have a family.
You're married to three kids.
What are their names?
What grades?
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So William is in eighth grade and Nathan is in
sixth grade and they're both atHarbor Lights and Claire is a
third grader at Waka Zoo.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
All right.
What sports do your kids do?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
So Will is right now.
If you were to ask him, youknow what he's going to do in
high school?
He would tell you that he willplay water polo in the fall, he
will swim in the winter and playbaseball in the spring.
And then Nathan is kind ofstill kind of figuring some
stuff out, played football thislast fall and had a lot of fun
with that, and he plays baseballas well.
(07:04):
And he is in the water rightnow too, somewhat reluctantly.
I try to encourage him or kindof focus on the fact that
swimming is going to help makehim a better football player,
better baseball player andtrying to stay as well-rounded
as possible, and hopefully wecan keep him in the water here
too.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Moving forward, Well, when you told me about doing
baseball and swimming at thesame time, I'm like what's the
crossover?
And I figured it out.
When you're diving into secondbase, you have that arm wind and
then you just lay it out, youknow.
So you'll see that that'll bewhat's he doing.
Well, that's from from swimming.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
And then, steve, one of the projects that you've been
able to kind of dive in andI've really taken a backseat and
deferred to you on is kind ofthe strategic plan for the new
aquatics facility.
Here I know what the processlooked like when we were going
through the stadium.
What's that been like for youto kind of go through that and
(08:00):
be a part of those meetings?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Yeah, it's, it's been a pretty cool experience and
very blessed to be a part ofthose meetings.
Yeah, it's, uh, it's been apretty cool experience and, uh,
very blessed to be a part of it.
Um, you know, you talk to a lotof people in a lot of districts
and when they start theseprojects, not not all coaches
get to be involved.
Um, and you know, they've kindof brought me in on day one.
You know, we literally got tobuild the vision of, you know,
what we want the pool to be,what we want the facility to be.
(08:22):
The district definitely hadsome ideas and some other
community-type stuff that'sgoing to be involved in there,
but we've really got to design apool from nothing and that's
been a pretty cool process Water.
Well, yeah, cement, tile, thosesorts of things, all of your
basic building materials.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So one of the things Steve and I were talking about
just yesterday, in fact, is theamount of tile that goes into an
aquatics facility, every squareinch of the pool deck, the pool
locker rooms.
There's so much freaking tile.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
A little bit more than that bathroom off the
kitchen hallway.
Yes, yes, way more.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
Way more.
But yeah, so we're we're about95% done with the design process
.
They've already begun some sitedevelopment stuff.
Right now we're kind oftargeting fall of 2027 as a
finished date and so we're stilla little ways away.
But it's kind of cool to seekind of where we started, where
we're at, and I'm very excitedabout the next couple of years
(09:25):
as we kind of watch that allcome together.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
And let's get to our very special guest today
Mackenzie.
Baldwin Mackenzie, you're asenior here at West Ottawa.
Can you believe you're alreadyhere?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
No, I can't Like time's been going by so fast.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, it goes away in a hurry, right?
You're a member of the NationalHonor Society and you, when I
talked to your mom, I got totalk with her.
You are in one of my favoriteclasses and programs here at
West Ottawa.
You're in Wobe N with.
Wally, what are you guys doingin class right now?
What kind of projects are youdoing?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, so I'm in Wobe N and advanced broadcasting.
So in Wobe N we're really justtrying to work on like making
shows, because we got a completeremodel of the studio.
So, we're still trying to learnthe ways of all the new
technology and it's been astruggle, but we're finally
starting to get a hang of it andget shows on the air every
single day.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Learning curve's tough right.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yes, yeah, especially because we were so used to last
year's stuff easy peasy, justclick of a button and the show
was filmed and made and postedto YouTube.
So now we have a ton of newstuff with like a podcast studio
, green screen, talk show setand all the like technologies.
Completely new cameras likeTriCast.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
What have you been doing directly yourself?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, so we rotate through the class of like every
job just to get a hang of likeeverything.
But something that I've beenreally working on is the tri
caster system, or like theswitcher, so that's like
switching the cameras when itneeds to be adding the graphics
to the show beforehand, becauseit's so much fun yeah, we used
to like edit it later and addgraphics, but now we can do it
while we're filming no kiddingyeah, it's really sweet and the
whole sound system it's all likeit's basically like the main
(11:02):
job, that like produces the show.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Oh, that's really fun .
Yeah, I mean, this is just funhere.
I mean, just looking at thestuff we're doing, it's really
fun to do that, so I'm gladyou're having a great time in
there.
You also wrote a lot of stufffor the West Ottawa, so I went
through pretty much every storythat you wrote just to read it.
Nice writing, being an athletelike you are you get interviewed
once in a while.
Right, what is it like?
(11:26):
What was it like for you to gointerview other people?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
honestly, I found it kind of hard because people like
weren't really willing to likeinterview and I just needed to
make sure that I got like whatwas needed for the articles and
to make sure that I had theright information.
But I honestly found it hardbecause usually, like, if
someone wanted to interview me,I'd be like yes, so it was hard
to like finally get like no'sand like try and search for
(11:51):
people to interview and stufflike that.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, it doesn't feel good to get those.
No, it sure does not.
Oh, that's really tough.
Yeah, but you know when you,when you do this, you know you,
when you're in both sides of it,then it makes you better in the
long run, whenever you'll getinterviewed, now you're doing
great.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
right now You're killing it.
I've definitely learned from itbecause now I know when someone
wants to interview me.
I have to be on it and bring upall the details.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Can't see Baldwin, no tapering in there in here,
that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I've gotten to know your mom a little bit just
because of her involvement withthe athletic boosters.
Uh, she was a swimmer here atWest Ottawa.
What's that?
How cool is that that you getto kind of follow in her
footsteps?
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I guess yeah, and she honestly was a pretty good
swimmer.
She had some records on theboard but obviously there are
broken since.
But I was able to like gofaster than her past time, so
that was pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Did you brag at her?
Oh absolutely All the time.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Like whenever she tries to like critique, I'll be
like well, I was faster than you, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
That always goes on.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, I didn't know she was a swimmer, but that's
great that she was.
There's always connections hereat West Ottawa too.
Like I've never met you beforeand never talked to you, but
your brother, bryce, playedbasketball when Hudson, my son,
was a sophomore.
He played up.
So they've played on the sameteam and this is a story you
don't know, but I used to playpickup basketball with your dad
way back in the day.
(13:13):
They used to play on the Sundaynights of the Dutch Dome.
This was, uh, probably like,yeah, 2013, 2014, I had just
come off, uh, ripping myAchilles tendon and I was about
seven months back healed and I'mlike, hey, I'm just trying to
get out there again.
So we were playing at the DutchDome in about 20 minutes and
I'm like, oh boy, I'm slow.
Like you know, I couldn't getby a sloth at that point.
(13:35):
You know I was so slow and sowe're going down and I hadn't
scored all night and I finallywas on a two on one.
It's like I'm the, I'm the goodoption here, like the defenders
closing in, I got a bounce pass, took a dribble about to go in,
boom from behind, swipe, ballgoes, hits, goes off, my knee
goes out of bounds, lose theball.
Who was it?
(14:00):
It was your dad.
So I also have been a victim ofthe baldwin speed he got me so
good that day.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It was crazy my dad takes basketball very seriously
and he's fast he's still playingevery tuesday and thursday at
like 5 am I think it's stillwith like an adult like did he
play in high school and stuff Idon't, don't really know, I'm
not sure, well, he was pretty,he was pretty fast.
Still I was pretty impressed,he always films his highlights
and then posts it on YouTubeprivately, just for our family,
(14:22):
and he'll replay it over andover again in our living room of
him dunking.
I don't even know, it's sofunny.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh, that's a blast.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
He loves it.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Oh, that's hilarious.
You have some swimming recordswith your mom.
Now you have broken some ofhers too, right?
Was there one like an age groupone, or did she have a high
school record too at one point?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
She didn't have a high school record.
She didn't.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
No, okay, so it was an age group one, what?
13 or 14 years old or something.
I think so.
Yeah, so she was telling methat story.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Obviously it doesn't really mean much to you.
Because it so, I'm sure itmeant a lot to her.
One other thing we'll finish upon getting to know you.
You have two dogs.
You have two golden retrievers.
What are their names?
So the older one is bentley,he's 12, and then we have um
bristol, who's four years oldand he's actually an english
cream retriever.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
So he's like very white and they're both super
fluffy yeah, when I was talkingto your mom about it it was like
you got the.
You got the, the dog you've hadfor a long time, but you went
and got the buddy dog yes thatwas real nice.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Well, this is a very golden retriever friendly room.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I have a golden retriever, eight-year-old
hendrix uh, juniper or juni,over here she's six we don't do
dogs at our house and then ofcourse we got bentley and
bristol.
So but hey, let's uh move intothe team, all right, and then
we'll talk about this together.
So this year it's team.
You have like a one in fourrecord in the okay, red coach.
But you said you know you'vebeen close in many of your dual
(15:45):
meets this year, right, so a lotof close ones just not quite
getting there.
Maybe between you and Mackenziecan you guys talk about some of
the girls on the team who arehaving nice seasons and you know
how they're contributing.
May you want to go first,mackenzie.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, so I swim with most of them over the summer.
So I've seen the hard work thateveryone's put in and this
season, honestly, it's reallyshown.
Like, for example, lily Perez.
She's gotten personal bests indual meets, which that doesn't
happen very often, so reallyproud of her for that.
And then we have an exchangestudent, sophie Bach.
We're super excited to whenstudent Sophie Bach.
We're super excited to when.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I found out that we're getting an exchange from
Denmark.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I think, yeah, denmark, and she's a great asset
to the team.
We had a kind of a hole in thefly and she filled that role
right away.
So super excited for whatconference and state will hold
for everybody that's fun forthem.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
How about you coach any other other names?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
yeah, I think senior Bailey Davis is kind of anchored
, our distance crew swimming the200 and the 500.
Izzy Steele is swimming both IMand breaststroke, same events
as Lily is.
And looking at you know, thenice part about this team is we
have a lot of seniors who have alot of good experience which,
as you're heading into the endof the season as a coach, you're
(16:55):
always a little bit morecomfortable with things, knowing
that.
You know the kids have beenthrough this before.
They kind of know what toexpect and we just have a lot of
good leadership.
In terms of the conference meet,you know you talked about, you
know, our one in four record.
We got the psych sheetyesterday and kind of looking
through that psych sheet,rockford has kind of, you know,
solidified themselves as the topteam in the conference.
(17:16):
But what's kind of exciting isthere's a pretty you know on if
you were to score out the psychsheet and obviously it's not
swum on paper and things aregoing to happen at the meet.
But you know we're about 13points away from second place
and so that's kind of you know,as we go into this meet, you
know I think our big goal as ateam is just to you know, not
only try to have as manypersonal bests and best times
(17:39):
and those sorts of things, butsee if we can't beat some of
those teams that we lost to inthe dual meet season.
And you know, the more we can,the more we can pick off, the
better.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
Yeah, the league is just so competitive in every
sport.
The conference meet is always alot of fun for me to get over
there to get over for prelimsbecause I get to see everybody
swim.
I'm really looking forward totomorrow over at east kentwood.
Mckenzie, can you talk to us alittle bit?
I mentioned it earlier as wewere kind of introing.
You guys grind and I don't knowif, like the normal person,
(18:14):
understands the amount of timeit takes to be a swimmer of your
caliber.
Could you just walk us throughlike what a week might look like
for you?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah.
So every Monday and Wednesdaywe have AM practice at five 45
to seven o'clock, which it'spretty hard to wake up for it,
but you know, in the end it'sdefinitely worth it.
And then after school we havethree to five 30.
On Mondays and Wednesdays aswell, we have lifts from five to
five 30, and then Tuesday,Thursday or Tuesdays we have
practice three to five 30.
(18:45):
And then Thursdays are usuallyour duels, with an occasional
Tuesday duel as well, and thenFriday and Saturday we get up
and grind for practice again.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Yeah, we had a Sarah Mara on, who is a gymnast at the
university of Minnesota, andthose two sports are really the
only ones that I would saycompare to each other the amount
of hours and time that they putin.
Just a lot of credit to you andthe other girls on the team for
kind of accepting that andgoing all in.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Yeah, I think the one thing people don't understand
either is, for the most ofpractice, they're staring at the
bottom of the pool, which isnot an easy thing to do, right
that's why tile is important.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah right, the tile choice matters here.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
So it definitely takes a special person to be a
swimmer right.
It's an incredible amount ofwork.
Swimmer right it's you knowit's incredible amount of work.
The cool part about that is,you know, after the kids go
through the process and we getto the end and we go through the
taper and um, you know they seethe success that comes from
that.
You know, I think everyonelooks back and you know they're
glad, glad they did it.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's so rewarding, Like not just like physically,
like knowing like, oh, I got apersonal best, but like mentally
, knowing that you're able tolike get yourself up early in
the morning and then getyourself back to the pool after
school.
It's, it's really rewarding.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
How do you handle as you're going through and you
have, you know, am practice acouple of days a week.
You've got the afterschoolpractice.
You're also a very accomplishedstudent here at West Ottawa.
How do you manage your time?
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, I mean, obviously school comes first, so
I make sure to after practice.
If I have any work that needsto be done, I make sure to get
all that done.
But then I also want to get tobed early because I don't want
to be tired and need to makesure that I'm well rested for
practice and just the meats andhave my body be ready.
So there's a ton of differentaspects to swimming and that's
not just the swimming part.
(20:35):
Whether that's eating healthy,like the swimming part, whether
that's eating healthy, likebalancing your time, making sure
you're getting enough rest.
It all kind of comes together,though.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
And not to mention the part-time job.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Oh yes.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
You do a part-time job too.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
A little peach wave Frozen yogurt.
Oh, let's go.
Well, that's a good spot to beat.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Yeah, that'll work.
There's a when I sat down withCoach and your other coach the
other night and they weresharing with me some of the real
specifics of what makes up apractice, Can you talk about I
call them yardage swims I don'tknow if that's the term or not.
I could be wrong and thenresistance bands and buckets.
Can you just explain what thatis and how you train with those
(21:14):
like that?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
How I train with the bands.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Well, tell them what a yardage swim is, how long it
is, all that type of stuff, oris that not a thing?
Speaker 5 (21:22):
so I think yeah, I think what I think kind of what
he's referring to is, you know,like on a monday, you know we
might do a set of 2100s or, um,you know it might be a set of
two 400s and six 200s or youknow kind of those threshold
type swims.
So I think he's looking at youknow how.
You know what does you knowsome of those sets look like?
You know, maybe you know what'syour favorite set or you know
(21:45):
what sets do you like most?
And then, um, we talked alittle bit about some of the,
the resistance work that we doand just what exactly that is.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, so we usually like split up each day of like
what we're like focusing on, solike mondays are like threshold,
so super long, but also likefast keeping a good pace, so
that could look like 2100s, likeyou said, or 2050s.
Usually is am practice, butthat's another one that's pretty
hard.
And then the resistance bands weattach like a cord or like a
(22:16):
belt to us and we swim acrossthe pool and it is basically
pulling you back with likeweight on your back, so it can
get pretty challenging, but thenthe fun part is that, like once
you reach the other side, itpulls you back really fast.
You can kind of just floatthere, that's funny.
Yeah, it'll just pull you backreally fast.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
It has to feel amazing when you take that belt
off and you just swim withnothing holding you back.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Yeah, it's a good training, probably mentally too,
right?
Hey, I am pretty fast, get thisoff me, I'm going.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
So the cords are just like an elastic band.
But then we also have buckets,which is like a bucket that you
put weight in, and sometimes youcan put water in it, but we've
been putting weight belts in itOkay.
And then you just if you gosuper heavy, usually you work on
underwaters or breakouts, sothen you can barely only make it
to halfway because of how heavythe weight is when are these
buckets when you're swimming?
They're just on the side of thepool.
It's like a.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
It's attached to a pulley system.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
So they call them power towers or power racks.
So it's just a metal rack.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
I feel like I'm at an 80s rock concert there.
All right, keep going, sorry.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Yeah, so just a metal , aluminum rack that has two
buckets that are attached to youknow, basically attached to the
string that's attached to you.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
That's really sweet, it really is.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Is that common.
Most teams will be doing thatkind of training.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Yeah, I's something that, um, you know, swimming,
like any sport you know, hasevolved over time and you know,
old school swimming is justgrinding out yards and it used
to be, you know, the common, youknow thought was the more yards
you do, the faster you swim.
And swimming is definitelygoing to more of a sprint focus,
Um, and not, and part of thatsprint focus is, you know, that
(23:56):
power aspect as well.
You know, and the stretch cordsand the buckets are kind of a
key piece of that, that maybeless yards, more intent, more
focus, and so it's kind ofsomething that's really kind of
come about over the last five toten years.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Is that a fun thing for you to do?
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah, I love it, it's definitely different than just
grinding out thousands of yards.
So it's super fun, but it'salso super beneficial.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Yeah, definitely a nice break from the traditional
swim sets.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you're also one of the teams here at West Ottawa
that has really always embracedthe work in the weight room.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
You guys are in there a couple days a week.
Yeah, we try to lift three daysa week and that's something
we've done for a really longtime.
You know, since Frank's come onas our strength coach, I feel
like he's really helped us kindof hone in exactly what we're
doing, what days, what lifts,you know.
So we've always we've alwaysbeen pretty big on the strength
training and I think Frank hashelped us kind of dial that in
(24:54):
kind of to that next level, um,and especially when it comes to
taper time in the weight roomyou guys doing a lot of like a
lot of back, shoulders, legsprimarily.
Yeah, um, kind of.
One of the big things withswimming is when you're doing
all those yards, you'reconstantly building up the front
of the shoulder, the chest, um,and so a lot of the things we
(25:15):
do in the weight room are tokind of balance out what we're
doing in the water.
And so a lot of the things wedo in the weight room are to
kind of balance out what we'redoing in the water.
So your back, shoulders, youknow, and then legs are like any
sport, you know, legs are key.
We do a lot of underwater kickwork in practice and I think a
lot of the things we do in theweight room help complement that
in terms of leg strength.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
I want to talk about one other fun thing about your
team Assistant coach, drewJohnson.
As long as I've been here atWest Auto, he's always been one
of my favorite people here, likehe just is.
What is it like as a swimmer tohave him as a coach?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You know he's super funny.
He's always there to make jokesand make practice a little bit.
You know, lighthearted andsuper entertaining just to watch
him walk around and kind ofyell at us.
But all in good heart, goodintentions, but it's definitely
super fun to have him around.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, and these guys are like a stepbrothers movie
those two right.
Well, didn't you guys make at-shirt or something one year?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
The guys, the guys, the boys, the boys did Okay,
they definitely have a bromance,yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And you guys don't call him coach Johnson, right?
What's his?
Uh, what's his nickname Dre.
Yeah, it's hardcore right there.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Coach Dre.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
All right.
Well, the one other thing we'lldo with the team, though it's a
very large team too right?
So how many swimmers?
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Up 27, I think, think .
But we've had teams as many as50, 55 before.
Got you Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
So it's still a big team.
Yeah, I noticed at the seniornight that Grand Haven team was
really big.
Yeah, I was just looking at thedifferences that day.
All right, let's go toMackenzie your swimming career.
Let's talk primarily about youfor a little while.
It'll be fun.
This is part of the WOBNspotlight, we'll call it that.
When you first started swimming, your mom told me you were fast
(27:00):
, right away.
Right.
What was that like for you whenyou first started swimming?
It's like, oh, what's going onhere?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
You know, honestly I didn't really realize because I
had no idea what was good or howanything worked for swimming.
But I just remember everyonewould try to convince me to
start swimming for USA, but Ijust had no want in it.
I obviously I liked swimming,but it was just age group and
I'd practice like two times aweek and go to the little dual
(27:26):
meets that they have for theeight and unders.
But then finally, I think whenI was like 10, I joined the USA
team and then that's when Ireally like set off and realized
that like this could besomething for me.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, your mom said earlier that there was some
resistance to becoming a swimfamily.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Right when you started doing that.
What type of travel?
What's it like?
What's the season, off seasonlike, when you're not swimming
for school?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, so USA, same practice schedule, just like
every day.
We don't have mornings, though,but then our club meets are a
lot bigger.
Instead of, like the duels,it's like all the teams in the
area.
So it calls for a lot moretravel and then, especially like
, as you like, move on and likeget to the higher championship
meets, you have to go far away.
(28:09):
So, like recently, I've been inIndianapolis, ohio State, like
all over the place, which alsocalls for a lot of hotels.
So it's honestly a lot of moneyto like a lot more than school,
just trying to like travel andthen trying to like swim, well,
while you're like not close tohome, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
And then were there, as you were kind of coming up
through the program, were theregirls that were swimming at West
Ottawa that you kind of reallylooked at and were like I want
to be like that person.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, there were a ton of people like obviously
like people in my cousin's grade, just because I knew them and I
was familiar with them, like,for example, caroline Sisson
really good example, and she'sinsane.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
So when anybody asks you know what's the sport that
West Ottawa can kind of hangtheir hat on.
From the day this building well, not this building, but the
school district came intoexistence, Swimming has been a
program that has been very goodfor us over the years.
How about when you were kind ofjust starting out your freshman
(29:11):
year, Like who were some of theseniors maybe, that you looked
up to or took you under theirwing?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, Freshman year is definitely Maddie Remen
Schneider and Kendall Vara.
They were the seniors at thetime and they were great
teammates to have and great rolemodels and I definitely looked
up to them a ton, especiallybecause the year prior I trained
with Kendall a little bit, sokind of knew her a little bit
before the season started.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Has that had an effect on you as you turned into
a junior and a senior?
How has that affected you asyou have younger swimmers on the
team?
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, it definitely showed me what I want to be to
them and how I want them to lookup to us and just setting good
examples.
And I miss the seniors from myfreshman year very much and I
kind of want to be that personLike, oh, there's a hole in our
team now.
So that's just kind of how Ifelt.
Like not having those same,like the same teammates is
(30:02):
definitely hard.
Go moving on with differentpeople.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, you're in a different role.
You're the one, you're the onebeing looked up to, right and
and trying to include everybody.
So you had a great season as afreshman and a sophomore.
You know, you came sophomore.
You were Swimmer of the Yearright in the area Holland
Sentinel.
What was those two years likefor you getting started?
Were you a little surprised atwhat you could do?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, it was a really exciting time because, you know
, going into high school I hadno idea what the competition
would be like.
You know, high school is very,very different from what I had
like experienced before was very, very different from what I'd
experienced before.
So I kind of just went into itjust hoping to get personal
bests and just keep improving,but to realize that I was
actually able to keep up withthe other girls, the seniors at
(30:46):
the time, it was a reallyexciting time.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
And coach.
Then in her junior year shesets that record From a swimmer
that you had coached yearsbefore.
Can you tell us about, maybethe two of them, how they
compare, from a swimmer that youhad coached years before.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Can you tell us about , maybe, the two of them, how
they compare?
And yeah, you know, one of theone of the interesting things
about you know, especially highschool girls swimming is a lot
of times you will see athleteshave success early, you know,
sometimes as eighth graders,freshmen, sophomores, um, and it
can.
It can be extremely challengingsometimes then to get best times
as you move forward in yourhigh school swimming career, and
so that varsity record forMackenzie was definitely kind of
(31:24):
the goal for junior yearbecause she had been close the
previous year and ColleenVanderpool had had that record
prior.
She was on our 2012 statechampionship team.
So that was, you know, the twoare probably a little bit
different swimmers, but one ofthe things that Kenzie's been
(31:45):
working on to try to get thatrecord is her underwaters, and
so Kenzie is probably one of thefastest backstrokers I've seen
between the flags.
But the underwater kick wassomething that had to kind of be
developed over her high schoolcareer and I think she made some
good strides in that last year,which I think helped her to
(32:06):
kind of, you know, take thatnext step and break that record,
and I think she's made someeven more strides in that, you
know, heading into this season.
So we're kind of looking, youknow, looking forward to the end
here this year to see kind ofhow that will you know, will
impact her swims at the at theconference and state meet this
year.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I know, whenever I watch the Olympic swimmers as a
person who is not a swimmerdoing that I always am amazed at
the turnover of those feet.
It's just this.
It's just popping the wholetime.
That's gotta be hard to do.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Is that it's just popping the whole time.
That's got to be hard to do isthat it's?
It's really hard because notonly are you underwater and
having to hold your breath, butit's the fastest time in your
whole race is like pushing offthat wall, so you really have to
make the best of it, but it'sdefinitely a challenge yeah, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Was that getting that record?
Is that one of your favoritememories so far in your career?
Do you have any other thingsthat stand out for you?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
I'd say that was probably the best memory for me
because, you know, going infreshman year I saw that record
how I mean I had quite a bit oftime to drop, but I knew that I
looked up to Colleen because shewas a part of that state
championship team and I knewthat was something that I was
looking forward to achieve.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
You do.
That was a great memory.
And then every once in a while,you get something that comes up
that you didn't expect.
Let's talk about senior night,which was just last week.
Right, you had a kind of anunexpected thing come up, where
you had an unexpected challengesitting in front of you.
Coach, do you want to maybe setthe stage a little?
Speaker 5 (33:26):
bit yeah.
So I had gotten a call from theGrand Haven coach earlier in
the week that he was going tohave an athlete that was going
to be suiting up to try to gether state cut, which I was 100%
in agreement with.
It's kind of one of thoseunwritten rules that you don't
wear a tech suit in a dual meetand if you're going to, you have
the courtesy to let the otherteam know, because they can have
(33:49):
an impact on the swim in someregards, on the outcome of the
meet.
And so it's Kenzie's seniornight, lots of family.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
It's senior night.
This is your night.
This is your teen's night.
Someone's got on a tech suit.
Speaker 5 (34:01):
Lots and lots of family and friends in attendance
and you know so HunterBackstroke comes up and you know
this young lady has the suit onwhich you know Kenzie's a
pretty confident swimmer and youknow a faster swimmer, you know
, than the lady that or theyoung lady that she was going
against.
But it still adds a little bitof pressure because you know
(34:23):
you're tired, you're a couple ofweeks out from taper.
It just provides a little bitmore pressure to to perform and
you know it was.
She goes a season best time offirst time she had been 57 this
season.
You know wins the event and soit was kind of cool to see that.
You know that young lady tryingto get her cut which is fine.
(34:45):
You know kind of, you know, gaveher the you know the pressure
to, you know, to go a seasonbest time, you know, at senior
night.
And then, interestingly enough,we get to the 400 free relay
and both Kenzie and this otheryoung lady are the anchors on
the relay and Grand Haven wasprobably about a half a pool
(35:06):
length ahead of us.
This young lady, still in hertech suit, and Kenzie, dives in
and, you know, very methodically, throughout the race, kind of
continues to gain on her, gainon her, gain on her, and then
ends up touching her out by oneone hundredth of a second and so
just kind of a cool way to end,you know, your dual meet career
at home, you know, in front ofthe home crowd and you know
(35:29):
everyone's on their feet andcheering and just kind of a cool
way to end things.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
What was going through your mind as an athlete
with all that he just talkedabout?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah.
So obviously, like there wastalk that she was going to be in
a suit and obviously that kindof scares you because you're
like this, like doesn't happen.
But honestly I just used it asmore motivation for me
personally because obviously Iwanted to get the win and I
wanted to go fast time but alsothe motivation that, oh, I was
helping her out, oh, I like Ican help her, I can help her
achieve her goal.
And that's kind of like the wayI looked at it, Like, oh, she
wants to swim next to me, Likehopefully I can help her get her
(36:03):
cut, but also do wellpersonally.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh, I never would have thought of that.
That's part of your approach.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Well, aren't you a good person?
Speaker 5 (36:11):
It was a it was a super cool experience.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
So I've been around enough to know wait a minute,
why is that girl got a tech suit?
I actually went up to Steve andsaid, steve, why is this girl
suiting up?
And it was all because of thetaper and conference meet and
state meet and all of thosetypes of things.
But then as you touched her outin that relay, the final race
(36:34):
in that pool, just all of thegirls around and the excitement
on the team, it was reallyreally quite awesome just to be
down there on the deck and be apart of it.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, and one one hundreds is literally like a
fingernail, like ahead of her,so it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah.
Yeah, We've had one of thoseclose touch offs before my my
first year here at West Ottawawhen I was at the Holland
Aquatic Center.
Right State championship.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Do you ever have that often where you get a little
extra fire?
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, I mean definitely competitors have
something to do with that.
Like, if I see, oh, that girl'sin a suit, like it's going to
motivate me a little bit more.
But it also just depends on,like, what my goals are
personally.
Like, if I have a goal goinginto the season and I know that
this is my last chance, orsomething like that, then I'll
definitely get more pumped andworking hard to achieve it.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
What are your own personal goals, going into
conference and then goingpresumably into state?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, into conference .
I definitely want to get thatconference title in the hunter
back and honestly just improvemy time for the season and then
into state, hopefully get topthree, and I want to get down to
a 55 again in the hunter backand re-break my own record.
You feel like you can do it?
I think so.
You got that home cooking, yes.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You should be pretty good with that.
What coach shared with me theother night too is this was
something I didn't know, didn'tknow about, but when people go
to state they can only do twoevents correct.
So you kind of that who is inwhat event?
Variable right, like who'sdoing what.
Can you guys just briefly maybeexplain that to the listening
crowd?
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, so you can only obviously pick two events, and
a lot of, like the top swimmersqualify in more than one event.
So it's honestly just going tobe a gamble to see who's in what
event and who's in front of you, who's behind you, or oh, the
person that should win isactually in a different event,
so then you get a better chance.
So it's honestly kind of nice,because I know like there's
other sports that like everyonejust competes together, but it's
(38:23):
definitely different knowingthat my top competitor in the
hunter back might not actuallyswim the backstroke.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
That's quite something yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
And I, and I think you know part of that in.
You know, as you know, shetalked about being top three and
going her best time.
I think you got to focus on thethings that you can control,
right.
And so, going into that meet,she's going to prepare to swim
the 100 backstroke and she'sgoing to set that goal of going
to 55.
And you know, and she's talkingabout, top three is, you know,
is a state championship possible?
(38:52):
It is, and you know part ofthat will possibly depend on who
swims it.
All of those things kind ofcome into play every year.
So for her to have that mindsetof setting those goals that you
know are in her control, andthen the rest will kind of play
itself out.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Once you get through that, you'll probably go back to
doing some more training, butnext year, of course.
You made your decision lastspring, I believe right, and
you're going to Hope College.
So congratulations.
First of all, thank you.
I mean, not everybody gets todo college athletics.
Kudos 3%, is it 3%?
Wow, so good for you.
I mean, you've been gettinglooked at since you were younger
(39:29):
.
When I talked to your mom aboutit, you were kind of like most
kids from this area and it'slike I'm not going to school
this close to home, right, yeah,but when you walked around
campus, things started to change.
Can you just maybe share thatwith us?
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah.
So the first time I had eventhought about college I
immediately said I would nevergo to Hope Way too close.
I mean, I had never been on thecampus.
I was like too small, too closeto home, it's absolutely just
not a chance.
But campus, I was like toosmall, too, too close to home,
like it's absolutely just not achance.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
But then, after like touring a couple of different
schools.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I realized that you went out to Oakland, right, and
I, after touring a couple ofschools and just like reaching
out to like their coaches, Iknew that like hope was like
where I wanted to be and touringthe campus it's super nice and
I didn't know that the small,like homey feel is just the best
fit for me.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
It's a gorgeous campus.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
It really is.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
And what kind of things did you do on that tour
day?
Did you do any special thingsthat stood out?
Speaker 1 (40:20):
On the tour day I just toured like the campus but
previously I had like been to acouple like volleyball and like
basketball games with the teamand honestly, just the team
culture really like solidifiedmy decision because they were
like family and I could totallysee myself like hanging out with
all of them.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Oh, that's really great, so you could see yourself
fitting in.
Yes, and it's a great academicschool, just a wonderful place
to be the campus.
The downtown head coach, jakeTabor you really liked his style
as well, right.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Yes, I really, really liked Tabor ever since he
reached out to me for the firsttime, I think.
I mean his kids were on the sameclub team as us, so like we
could kind of talk as like notrecruiting right so that
definitely helped a lot becauseI was able to build like a good
relationship with him before therecruiting process, which, if
you know, like coaches can'treach out to until you're a
(41:08):
certain age, but like thiswasn't really anything about
college at all, which was reallynice, and I learned like he's a
good person, he cares about meand then, once the recruiting
process started, he is a reallyreally good recruiter and he
would try any chance he got toconvince me to come to Hope.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
It's nice to be wanted.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Right, yeah, and it felt good.
And also he set up all thedifferent things with the teams
for me and it, just like yousaid, it felt good to be wanted.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
They have a pretty good uh team there too, right?
I mean they're 13th ranked indivision three right now.
I think it's four straight miaachampionships, a lot of top 20
finishes nationally.
When you get there, do youbelieve you'll have the chance
to be an impactful swimmer early?
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I think so.
I hope to.
I hope to be.
Yes, I definitely got to workhard to solidify my relay spots
and one of my goals for collegeswimming is to make it to NCAAs,
so hopefully I can earn my spotthere and impact the team in
that way.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
What are your plans on a career?
Where are you going to take it?
Hope, or are you just an idea?
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yeah, so.
I'm thinking of like exercise,science, physical therapy kind
of route.
Honestly, I haven't really donemuch like thinking about it,
but definitely something and youdon't have to know this early
definitely something along thelines of.
Speaker 4 (42:25):
That's really sweet, steve.
What's it like for you to havea student athlete who's going to
go on and compete at thecollege level but is going to be
kind of right here and you'llbe able to continue to kind of
follow Kenzie and her journey?
Speaker 5 (42:38):
Yeah, it's, it's pretty exciting, I think.
I think that Kenzie made agreat choice.
We had a lot of conversationsabout college swimming and you
know what was going to be theright fit for her and I think at
the end of the day she she knewearly on that hope was was the
right fit and I think you skillset is now her work ethic, all
(42:59):
of those things.
She's going to have atremendous impact on their
program and there's a reasonthat Coach Tabor contacted her
as much as he did and recruitedher as hard as he did, because
she is going to go in there andhave a chance to be on those
NCAA relays.
She's going to have anexcellent chance of making the
NCAA meet individually as welland it is kind of cool to every
(43:21):
now and then I'd be able to popover and see a meet and maybe
even one of these days, hope maycome over our way for a meet in
our new aquatic facilities.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah, I was going to say normally at the end of a
podcast I'll say, hey, it wasnice to sit down with you, we'll
watch you from afar.
But it's not going to be fromafar.
You're going to be swimming atthe Dow and then, very likely at
some point you will circle back, driving probably close to that
same parking lot that you'vebeen hitting for years, and
there'll be this brand newaquatic facility there and
(43:50):
you'll likely compete.
How do you feel about that?
That that might just be hereand you get to come back and
swim there likely.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
I'm super excited when I found out there was going
to be a new pool.
I mean, not very many schoolshave 50-meter pools, so for West
Ottawa to be one of those, it'sinsane.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
And are you part of the tile committee?
Speaker 5 (44:10):
She just bought stock in tile.
She should be, you should be.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
You should have a special role, special title.
How about you?
Speaker 5 (44:20):
Steve, are you looking at well, we kind of
answered that already, but Imean you're looking forward to
that new facility.
Oh, absolutely, we're very,very blessed, you know, to be
getting a 50-meter facility.
And just to kind of think about, you know the different events
that we're going to be able tohost.
You know I love coaching.
I'm also a big fan of swimming.
Coaching, I'm also a big fan ofswimming.
And so to think about you know,possibly you know, hosting an
(44:43):
MIAA championship and being ableto be there for that, and you
know help host that meet andwatch those meets.
It's going to be a lot of funand it's really going to be
spectator friendly, right theway it's being developed, yeah,
so we're going to be the onlyyou know, the only current
facility in Michigan that willhave kind of stadium-like
seating and basically seating onboth sides of the pool.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
East Grand Rapids a little bit has that setup.
Speaker 5 (45:03):
but this will be a much different feel and it's
going to be an environmentunlike any other when we host
big meets.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Kenzie, as we finish, I have to say it's been really
fun to sit down with you.
You talked about you looking upto older swimmers when you got
started.
You've been that person for alittle while now.
A lot of young swimmers look upto you.
I try to come up with a uniquequestion that I thought would be
good to finish up.
So are there any words ofadvice that a senior, mackenzie
Baldwin, would give to a seventhor eighth grade or freshman,
(45:35):
mackenzie Baldwin?
What might you say to thatyoung girl now that you've come
this far and done what you'vedone?
What might you say to her?
Speaker 1 (45:42):
That's a really hard question, you know I don't know.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
I'm challenging you.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
I'd probably just tell myself to believe in myself
, because from a young age Istruggled with some pre-race
nerves, but honestly there's noreason for it and it all will
work out and your hard work willpay off.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
That's a great answer .
Speaker 3 (46:04):
That pause was worth it.
There was a thing on Steve Jobsthe other day and they asked
him a question.
He paused for like a minute andthat's you know when you're
getting good answers whensomeone takes that long pause.
Coach, you got to coach for thelast four years a swimmer of
this caliber.
What's it been like for you?
Speaker 5 (46:19):
Yeah, it's been definitely a rewarding journey
for me as a coach.
Not every day do you get ayoung lady that just comes in
from day one and just wants towork hard is an incredible
teammate and the things thatshe's brought to our program.
You can't always teach that andit's been a lot of fun and I'm
(46:41):
really, really excited about thenext couple of weeks to watch
her kind of close out her WestOttawa career.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
We want to really thank you both for coming on.
You have a busy two days aheadof you, starting tomorrow, and
then what a taper trainbalancing act for the next
couple weeks.
Speaker 5 (46:59):
I love that he's trying.
Speaker 4 (47:00):
He's trying really hard to get the swim lingo.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
So, if you're listening, I was able to sit
down with these two coaches heretonight and they just talk
about taper all the time, so I'mlike I've got to find a place
for taper.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
And maybe, Steve, will you just give us maybe a
snapshot of what a taper is forthe folks that are not ingrained
in swim.
Speaker 5 (47:19):
So, kind of simply put, a taper is basically
resting up to perform your best,and the primary reason you
don't taper multiple timesthroughout the season is because
we do bring them down to apoint where if we try to swim
again in two weeks it's notgoing to be as good as it was
this weekend, and so it's, youknow, it's a little bit more
(47:40):
than just a simple rest for abig dual meet or that sort of
thing.
So really we've kind of, youknow, we've been doing the
morning practices, the three tofive, 30, the weight room, and
when we get to taper we cut outthe morning practices.
And you know, the first week oftaper is still.
We're still pretty putting insome pretty good yardage, but
we're coming down a little bit.
(48:01):
In the weight room we're notgoing to get on those.
You know power racks and youknow really break them down from
a resistance standpoint.
And then you know, probably thetwo to three days before their,
you know their meet, we, youknow it's just a lot of warmup
and warm down and you know, justgetting the body ready to to
(48:21):
swim fast.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
All right, I think the explanation of the taper was
actually longer than the taperitself.
Yeah, all right.
Well, hey, thanks for bothcoming on.
It's an absolute pleasure.
We'll be watching you over thenext couple of days and at state
at the aquatic center.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
Thank you guys, thanks so much, thanks for
having us.
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