Bearcat Swimmers Coach Young Athletes through Lessons and Special Olympics
By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- The Willamette University swimming teams have a history of student-athletes who have taught or coached swimming. This has continued to be true in recent seasons. Members of the women's team have been able to "Lead Her Forward" as they have worked with girls during swimming lessons or while coaching co-ed teams in Special Olympics. As we celebrate National Girls & Women' in Sports Day, several women's student-athletes are highlighted below as a few of the many Bearcats who have provided positive guidance while helping to build the self-esteem of young swimmers.
Grace Sheehan (So., Butterfly/I.M., Saint Paul, MN/Highland Park HS) taught swimming lessons to Salem area youngsters in the spring of 2020.
"'Lead Her Forward' to me means being a role model for other young women," Sheehan said. "I see teaching as a way to give back. Education and knowledge are limitless and priceless. I like interacting with whomever I am teaching and getting to know their personalities, along with learning about their perspectives."
Cameron Taggesell (Sr., Breaststroke/I.M., Sonoma, CA/Sonoma Valley HS) has coached one season of Special Olympics and has taught swimming lessons to children ages three through 12. For Taggesell, only a portion of leading someone forward is achieved through direct leadership and instruction.
"To me, 'Lead Her Forward' means leading, then guiding, and then stepping back to let the person become their own leader," Taggesell said. "In particular, learning how to swim is a fundamental skill that ensures water safety. By coaching swimming, I am not only improving the physical strength of my students, I am also teaching them a skill that can be lifesaving. I enjoy knowing that my students walk away from our lessons with water confidence and ability."
Kylie Lin ('19), from Palo Alto, California, swam backstroke and butterfly events for the Bearcats for three seasons (2015-16, 2017-19). She set Willamette records in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly. She also competed on the record-setting 400-yard medley relay team. Her coaching experience has been with children from six to 12 years old through private lessons and group lessons. Supporting young athletes and continuing that support are important activities to Lin.
"I hope that every girl and woman can participate in their sport without prejudice or discrimination," Lin commented. "Encouraging and supporting equal pay for women in the sports industry and maintaining access to sports in high school and college are necessary."
Jensine Rasmussen ('20), competed for Willamette in the backstroke and individual medley events from 2016-17 through 2019-20 after arriving on campus from Tacoma, Washington. She coached Special Olympics swimming during 2019-20 and helped coach various age groups and conducted swimming lessons while with her club team at home.
According to Rasmussen, we need to "continually make progress and breakthroughs for women in as many fields as possible. In athletics, I think it is about assisting younger athletes and helping them grow and make progress and advancements for women in sports. It means leaving a program, like Willamette athletics, better than we found it, and teaching individuals who join the program in the future to carry forward that progress."
Many women have set the stage for today's swimmers through their efforts to gain access and achieve success in athletic competition. For Taggesell, it's a continuing battle that continues to make progress. By choosing to "Lead Her Forward' in their coaching efforts, Taggesell, Sheehan, Lin, and Rasmussen, are some of the many women who have contributed to the growth of women's athletics in recent years.
"Women have fought (and still fight) to be represented in sports and be taken seriously," Taggesell said. "We need other women to help get us there. We need a support system. This is especially important because there are so many different experiences out there, whether it's based on gender or race or sexuality, or any number of identities. As a cis-white woman, I cannot bulldoze my experience onto everyone. I must lead, guide, and step back. I see coaching and teaching as a way of giving back."
"I want to help inspire the next generation of swimmers to continue the sport," Lin noted. "But it doesn't matter if they don't swim competitively; all that matters is water safety. At the end of the day, there isn't one way to teach a child. It's finding what works best and building from there."
"I think coaching and teaching are some of the best ways to give back to other athletes," Rasmussen said. "It allows us to pass on things we have learned about our sport and ourselves throughout our time in athletics. I enjoy being able to make connections with other athletes who are going through similar things that I did. It is also a great way to stay connected to something that was so important in my life."
Before excelling as youth swimming coaches, Willamette's student-athletes needed to develop their own skills, self-esteem, and confidence. They were able to become empowered in all aspects of their lives by practicing and competing in athletics.
"Being a woman in a sport has empowered me in a multitude of ways," Sheehan recalled. "It has taught me how to be strong and independent, but also how to be a collaborative person and a supporter among many women."
Lin added that "being a female athlete has empowered me to be confident in myself and accountable for my actions."
As a result of her experiences as a college swimmer, Taggesell has become more confident in her academic major (physics) as well.
"Out of all the physical sciences, physics is the most underrepresented by women, with women accounting for about 20% of undergrad physics majors," Taggesell said. "My sport empowers me to strive for representation in the physics community and to fight to be taken seriously, just like the women in sports before me have done."
Rasmussen has noticed the impact of being a student-athlete on her ability to be assertive.
"It has made me believe that I can do things just as well as anyone else and that I am not limited just because of my gender," Rasmussen commented. "It has made me more independent and to realize that I am strong and capable."
Many of the gains made by Sheehan, Taggesell, Lin, and Rasmussen occurred because of the influence of women who coached them in high school, on club teams, or in college. Those coaches were important links in the athletic and personal growth of each athlete.
"My swim coach from Sonoma, California, stands out to me," Taggesell remembered. "When I started swimming with Jane at the age of nine, we practiced in an old pool and we had a team of about eight. By the time I was in high school, Jane grew our team exponentially and moved us to the newer pool in town. Her dedication to creating a flourishing swim team showed me that hard work and persistence can lead to achievement."
"I have gotten to look up to my female coaches and look back on the positive impacts they left on me ... especially one of my high school swim coaches," Sheehan noted. "Her name is Katy and she swam for the University of Minnesota. She happened to be a butterflyer and she got in the pool with us one day to learn technique, and when she showed us her butterfly stroke I was in complete awe. Since then I have been a butterflyer as well!"
"I learned at a young age that gender does not define your abilities to lead and coach others," Rasmussen commented. "My female coaches have taught me how to be a good role model and have shown me what leading as a woman looks like."
Lin has noticed the impact of women who coached her at various levels of learning and competition.
"I am lucky to have had many phenomenal female coaches" Lin asserted. "They have a connection as a female coach to a female swimmer that inspired me to be better. As a 10-year-old, my first female coach knew I could compete with the boys at practice and gave me the confidence to be competitive. At 12-13 years of age, my next female coach added dryland training (running/crossfit) which pushed me physically and gave me new strength to improve my times.
"One coach stood out -- Head Coach Leslie Shelvin (now Associate A.D. and Senior Woman Administrator) at Willamette," Lin added. "She helped me find my love for swimming and how fun it was to swim fast. At times, I know I was difficult, but I would not have swum as fast as I did without her. She knew how to push me and motivate me to work hard during practice. Coming from a competitive high school swim club, I had thought I knew what I was getting into. Old habits are hard to get rid of, and with it came negative thoughts and doubts, but she helped me move past them to be the best athlete.
"There was one miserable, memorable practice at 6 a.m. with a 200 pace set, also known as death," Lin continued. "So, pretty much I wanted to shrivel up and float away ... Mistake #1 - not enough sleep; Mistake #2 - SHE was on deck; Mistake #3 - thinking I could get away with sandbagging (minimal or no effort). Long story short, I got yelled at for sandbagging this first set, but then swam significantly faster on the second round. She knew my potential and wouldn't let me do any less than what she believed I could do. By the conference meet, I had destroyed my previous personal best times and I got onto the Willamette Record Board. Thank you Leslie Shevlin for being my coach."
As current and former Bearcat women's swimmers coach youngsters, it's great for the "teachers" to share in the accomplishments of the athletes they coach. This shared joy is a great result of working to "Lead Her Forward."
"I enjoy the process of coaching/teaching," Lin said. "You have a child that has never been in a pool and by the end of all their lessons, you see them jumping off the side of the wall into the deep end and swimming back to the wall. After swimming for most of my life, I am thrilled when a child swims their first lap by themselves."