It’s every coach’s dream: working with athletes who respect you, who understand your expectations, who lead without being asked, who embrace hard work every day to maximize their ability.
For Jackson girls swimming coach Drew Whorley, this often idealistic notion is reality.
Need evidence? Watch the Jackson girls practice at the Mill Creek Swim Club.
Before a session kicked into top gear Tuesday afternoon, the girls – all 50 of them – clustered in the water at the far end of the pool. As the teenagers chatted away, it seemed only a bull horn could distract them.
However, as soon as Whorley spoke, their mouths stopped moving and their eyes locked onto an eraser board upon which the coach outlined his team’s training regimen.
“Working with 50 high school girls shouldn’t be this easy,” Whorley said later.
It’s only easy because Whorley, now in his sixth year as head coach at Jackson, has been cultivating special relationships for so long. The 29-year-old Whorley taught many of Jackson’s top swimmers back when they were 10, 11 and 12 years old when he coached the local West Coast Aquatics team. He has seen many of the Timberwolves evolve from awkward paddlers to confident competitors.
“It’s really been an amazing experience,” said Whorley, who swam at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and has been coaching for 14 years.
“It’s been gratifying.”
So far the Jackson experience has included several district titles and top-notch individual feats, but the girls learn about far more than perfecting their strokes. “Swimming is important,” Whorley said, “but I stress that swimming is about more than first and second place.”
Whorley stresses good communication. He asks the girls how school is going.
He listens to their problems. As a result, everyone on the team supports each another. Sure, they gain skills in the pool, but the Timberwolves also learn how to adapt to life, Whorley said.
“They become leaders, whether they want to be or not.”
Whorley doesn’t pick captains because he thinks leadership should be team-wide. He gives everyone an opportunity to emerge. “I challenge every swimmer to find a way to lead.”
This year’s team has plenty of leadership and talent, Whorley said. “I feel as good about this group of athletes as any group of girls I’ve worked with.”
Jackson returns six seniors from last year’s team that lost only two regular season dual meets and finished third in the district meet, and the following five Timberwolves placed in the top six at districts: sophomore Amber Pleasant, juniors Emily Chang and Lindsey Pagard, and seniors Angie Wang and Alex Hardy.
A sprinter last year, Pleasant, “is pretty versatile,” Whorley said. “She can swim pretty much any distance. She has a good backstroke.” Chang excels at backstroke, is a solid individual medley (IM) performer and has improved her freestyle technique, while Wang specializes in butterfly events and the IM.
Hardy is another versatile swimmer who does everything but the breaststroke.
“She can fit in anywhere,” Whorley said. Pagard competes well at the middle distances, especially in freestyle.
Kamiak and Shorewood are sturdy league opponents, but two uncontrollable factors might be Jackson’s greatest foes, Whorley said. First, Jackson’s pool time is limited – the team rents out the Mill Creek Swim Club, while Kamiak has its own pool. Second, since the Everett School District cut funding for diving, the Timberwolves forfeit valuable meet points before they even touch the water.
“That’s unfortunate,” Whorley said. “That will have a big impact on us this year.”
The Jackson girls are not complaining – they’re just adapting to life. Last week members of the team went door-to-door and hit the phones to ask for donations to pay for more swim time. In two-and-a-half hours, they raised about $1,700.
“Their attitudes have been exceptional,” Whorley said.
Not that he had any reason to expect less.
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