Hailey Howard, a 2022 graduate from Troy Christian, first stepped into the pool when she was five years old and has come a long way from her days swimming for the Eagles in her high school days.

Now, the recent graduate is ready to take on a new challenge as she takes over as the new head coach of the Tippecanoe swimming program as the new season is upon us. Howard has been a swimmer most of her life and now gets to enjoy the other spectrum of the sport, as a coach.

“Swimming was my childhood and my life, and I swam up to my senior year,” she said. “I regret not swimming my senior year.” But the new coach is now back in the sport she loved as a child.

“I moved to Tipp City and heard the former coach had stepped down and they were looking for a coach. I didn’t want to see Tipp be without a swim coach and it was kind of last minute and I have never coached before so it has been a learning curve, and in the past few weeks it has been amazing.”

Howard is learning a lot in her first few weeks on the job and has learned that being in the pool is a lot different from being out the water teaching the sport to others.

“It has been amazing, and we have done really great at practices,” she said. “It has been awesome seeing the individual strengths of the swimmers.”

“I still remember all the technical things of the sport and it is different from when you are a swimmer to when you are outside teaching the sport to others.”

Howard admits while she is excited to bring a new look to the program, the tradition is rich, and she looks forward to keeping the success with the Red Devils.

“The Tipp swim team has a great foundation, and the previous coach has done an amazing job,” she said. “It is great to bring a new perspective and fresh ideas. It is different for the swimmers because I am so young, I can relate to them. I know their struggles and know what it’s like to be a high school swimmer.”

“I want to bring a great team atmosphere, and it helps motivate everyone more to go to state,” she said. “Swimming can be individual based, but Tipp City is very unified as a team.”