ALBANY - When it comes to her duties, Angela Warren is never shy about diving right in…literally.
Since 2015, the longtime English teacher has also served as the head coach of Westover Comprehensive High School’s swim team – a program that often glides stealthily under the surface of the school’s Athletics programs just like its swimmers in the pool.
Before diving into the deep end, Warren strives for her students to play a sport before considering swimming. From this, she can build on the student’s stamina and muscles already gained by using a couple of different strategies.
From October to January, Warren holds many practices to get her students ready for the upcoming swim meets. While the intensity and amount of swimming each student does varies based on their skill level and experience, most practices follow a similar formula. Before practice even starts, students have to walk to the pool, which gets their legs warmed up. To further get warmed up, students do a quick exercise and stretch their muscles. Then, students will have a ten minute warm-up swim before getting into the real practice to work on their stamina. The rest of the practice mainly focuses on swimming a certain distance and then waiting a little bit of time before repeating that process again. These distances all depend on where the students are at in their training.
However, for beginners, most have to learn how to breathe properly while swimming before even taking a dip in the pool. Even though it may sound easy, mastering the rhythm of breathing while swimming is no small feat. It takes swimmers about a week to learn the perfect rhythm and pace of breathing.
Warren’s way of coaching has proven to be successful, as her students have accomplished many different achievements, including a few of her students have gone to state. Another big accomplishment the team has seen this year is two students volunteered to do the 500 (20 laps).
“Most kids sneak away because they know of the mental torment, but I had two step up that have never done it before,” says Warren. “Even though we didn’t do well, what counts is we still tried new things and different techniques.”
Warren says that the most rewarding part of coaching is seeing her students succeed and see all the progress they made during their time with her.
“It doesn’t matter what place they come in. Just getting their first time and then seeing their time after that go down is really fun to see,” Warren says.
With success also comes challenges. Although there weren’t many this year, she states one of the biggest challenges was with her student, Tyrese Stringer.
Tyrese Stringer is a sophomore that attends Westover and participated in Westover’s swim team for the first time this year. Unlike other beginners, Stringer didn’t know how to swim at all before joining the team. To help with teaching Stringer to swim, Warren hired a lifeguard. While the lifeguard was working with Stringer every practice, Warren was able to work with the rest of the team.
Stringer says this experience was very challenging, but due to his strong support system within the team, he was able to push through it. They helped him learn to not sink in the pool while also helping him not sink in motivation.
Swimmers like Betzy Nava, who is a senior at Westover, says, “We give each other motivation to strive for better as a team. As a team, we are all leaders. We NEVER make anyone feel less than the experienced. Instead, as a team, we help with the categories needing assistance as many times needed.”
Swim team and this experience has “given me the sense of not giving up. There've been some tough moments just like in swimming, but I’ve learned to keep going no matter how hard or how upset I’m getting at it,” Stringer says.
Due to Warren retiring this year, she hopes for someone that is proactive and driven to step up and take the role as head coach.
“If nobody steps up as a head coach, then there won’t be a swim team next year,” Warren says.
She says this is devastating to know due to Westover’s history with having a swim team since around the 80s.
As Warren prepares to hang up her whistle, the future of Westover’s swim team hangs in the balance. But her impact is already set in motion—rippling through each swimmer she’s coached, every lap they’ve completed, and every lesson they’ve learned. Whether it's first-time students or students who have pushed their limits in the 500 yard event, her leadership has molded a team that strives for progress over perfection.
Although it is up to someone else to step up to continue the team, one thing is certain. Warren’s influence will remain in the lessons she’s instilled in her athletes.