You can see it in her eyes. The time she wants is running through her mind. She’s posed on the starting block, ready to take off. As she glides through the water, she knows that if she doesn’t beat the girl next to her, it will hurt herself and her team.
Eighth-grader Lindsey Horejsi’s intensity just shows on her face and she can’t hide it.
Horejsi’s coach Jon Schmitz told a story about one meet where a girl was competing against the young, reputable swimmer and started crying because she was so intimidated.
“She’s a gamer,” Schmitz said. “She will do whatever it takes.”
Horejsi now holds the 200-meter individual medley (IM), 50-meter breast stroke and the 100-meter breast stroke records, all of which she captured in the first half of this season.
“I feel like I accomplished what I wanted this season,” Horejsi said.
Her goals for the rest of her swimming career include being a state breast stroke champion and be in the top three in the 200 IM. Just 14 years old, Horejsi is also training for the 2016 Olympics.
Horejsi does extra practice and training, lifted weights all summer and is on the track and field team in the spring. Maintaining passing grades is a necessity for every athlete, but Horejsi goes beyond just passing. She’s earns A’s in her classes and she’s in Tiger Choir.
Coach Schmitz has high opinions of Horesji and said she’s always doing the right thing.
“She will probably be the best swimmer I have ever coached,” he said.
Schmitz also coached Horejsi’s older sisters, Amy and Krista, both of whom were captains.
Horejsi is an inspiration to her team and sets an example for the younger girls. Senior captain Galen Schulz said when she was an underclassman, she and fellow captain and senior, Morgan Field, would just mess around and have tea parties during practice.
“All the younger girls used to be playing in the shallow end,” Schulz said.
But now with Horejsi going have such success, everyone is working harder and trying to race her. Horejsi doesn’t show off or try to be an example of what’s right, though.
“She legitimately loves to swim,” Schulz said of Horejsi.
The rest of the team is working really hard this season, too. The morning practices have made tears of exhaustion fall from their eyes.
“Everybody’s, like, killing themselves,” Schulz said.
At first everyone was resistant to waking up so early and jumping into the cold water, but in the end it’s clearly worth it. If you get caught crying on deck, Schulz will tell you there’s no crying in sports and to suck it up.
According to teammate Karli Kriewall, the shy and quiet version of Horejsi witnessed during an interview with an Ahlahasa reporter is not the person her teammates see on the pool deck. She works extremely hard during practice, but also jokes around with her teammates. Whenever she does mess around with the other girls, it takes the pressure off them. Everyone on the team is dedicated to having fun and working hard. Before a meet all the girls like to a dance in the locker room to “make it rain.” Schulz mentioned something about pulling pranks on coach “Schmituation.”
At the end of a race, instead of getting on the deck, the girls wait in the water for their teammate to finish. That’s their rule to support each other. They’re their own cheerleaders, especially in this record-breaking season.
“This year we focus on a team; we’ve made a conscious effort to make our theme ‘team’.” Schmitz said.