NOCTILUCA October 2016

Meet the athletes of the month

SPORTS

Appleton, Wisconsin October 2016 Volume XXII

Issue II Page 11

A swimmer’s opinion on the high school girls’ swim team

“GO GO!” “ KICK! KEEP

K I CK I NG ! ” “ ALMO S T

THERE! GO!”

The cheers echo off the

walls of the pool deck. It’s

the varsity heat of the 400

freestyle relay, the last race

of the meet, when four girls

on every relay team swim

one hundred meters each.

The last swimmer on each re-

lay is closing into the finish,

Appleton North in one lane,

Oshkosh West in the other,

neck and neck, each strain-

ing to gain an advantage. The

coaches for Appleton North,

Jamie Schnurer and Ruthe

Zimmerman, are jumping up

and down and yelling for the

swimmer to “GOOOO!”.

North touches first. The pool

explodes into cheers some-

how louder than they were a

minute ago. Both teams line

up in good spirits to give high

fives.

Swimming is thought of

as an individual sport. When

people watch the Olympics on

TV, Olympians usually swim

their races alone and come

together once to swim a re-

lay, but in a school swim sea-

son, that isn’t the case at all.

On the Appleton North swim

team, we all support each oth-

er, whether that means cheer-

ing at the end of lanes, help-

ing each other through a hard

practice, or just chatting with

someone when they’ve had a

bad day.

I got into swimming when I

was eight as a last resort. I had

tried tee ball and soccer, but I

quickly realized that anything

with running was off the table.

Being the sugar-loving 7 year-

old I was, my mother decided

I had to do something to keep

in shape and signed me up for

the YMCA swim team. I start-

ed with a week long trial and

boy, was that a mistake. Ev-

ery day I would go and swim

for an hour and a half, which

was not easy when the longest

I had ever swam by myself

was down the pool once at

swim lessons. Even though I

wanted to quit, I kept with it,

because my mom wanted me

to. After three or four years

of complaining and tantrums

accompanying any practice, I

started to really enjoy swim-

ming. Now it is one of the big-

gest parts of my life.

This year both the JV and

Varsity teams have seen great

improvement. Ruthe is work-

ing hard with the JV team to

improve their starts while Ja-

mie is putting more focus on

weights and endurance for

Varsity. With all the hard work

happening this year, our team

is stronger than ever and we

hope to show that with victo-

ries at the conference meets

and sectionals.

Our coaches and captains

have really been emphasizing

teamwork and positivity this

year. We have pairs of girls

called swim sisters, a newer

swimmer with a more expe-

rienced one. In the past swim

sisters had gotten each other

small gifts and snacks, but

this year we made each other

posters and will get each other

a bigger gift at the end of the

season.

It is an amazing feeling to

know that someone is going

to be there cheering for you.

Joining high school swim-

ming was the best decision I

could have made. I met one

of my best friends, learned

how to work as part of a team,

and overall it is super fun. Al-

though sometimes the practic-

es can make me want to quit,

I know that my, and all the

girls’, hard work will pay off.

This team has amazing people

and I wouldn’t want to lose

any of the friendships I have

made in the last two years.

Annika Rossebo - Karate - Sophomore

1. How did you get into

karate?

I got into karate because

my younger brother had start-

ed, and I thought it might be

fun, so I joined too. I knew I

wanted to continue after my

first class.

2. How often do you train

for karate?

I train two to four times a

week. Every three months, I

have to pass a test to move on

to the next rank.

3. What belt are you?

I am a second degree black

belt which required five years

of training.

4. Why do you do karate?

I do karate because it chal-

lenges me and is a unique

sport. There are so many dif-

ferent things I have trained

for, ranging from self defense

to forms, which is a compli-

cated series of movements, to

weapons such as nunchucks,

kamas, and bo staff. We also

learn how to spar, which is

fighting with some gear on.

I have learned not only great

martial arts skills but also

a lot about goal setting and

leadership.

5. What is your personal

goal for karate?

I am currently working to-

wards my goal of earning my

third degree black belt, which

requires three more years of

training added onto the five

for second degree. After rig-

orous training every weekend

for three months preceding

my test, I will earn my third

degree black belt in the fall of

2018.

Nick Smidt - Soccer - Senior

1. How did you get in-

volved in soccer?

I’ve been involved since I

was four at the Appleton Soc-

cer Club, and I’ve been play-

ing ever since.

2. What is your position

that you play?

I play center defensive mid,

which means that I run up and

down the field to both attack

as well as defend.

3. What are some of your

personal and team goals for

soccer?

I have two major goals re-

ally, one of them personal

and the other in regards to the

team as a whole. My personal

goal is to pass the ball around

as much as possible and give

them as many chances to

score. As for my team goal,

I believe we can win confer-

ence again as we did last year.

Although we lost many start-

ers last year, I believe we can

do even better by playing as

a team and including every-

body to achieve a team win.

4. What do you love most

about soccer?

I think what I love most

about soccer is that it is a

continuous flowing game that

leaves a lot of room for im-

provisation and unique team

combinations, as well as

plenty of opportunity for cra-

zy plays and intense games.

5. Why do you feel peo-

ple should come to soccer

games?

I believe you should come

to soccer games because

not only are they interesting

and often intense games, but

it’s also a great social event,

and chances are, one of your

friends are already there!

6. Finish this sentence: At

the end of the season, Ap-

pleton North Boys’ Soccer

will be…

In the Wisconsin state play-

offs. If we all have our heads

in the right place and play as

a team, we have a very good

shot at making it to state.

Annika Rossebo.

Photo cour-

tesy of Annika Rossebo

Nick Smidt.

Photo courtesy of Nick Smidt

The girls’ swim team getting pumped up before a meet.

Photo courtesy of Sydney Landsverk

By Maddie Clark