LAPEL — It’s not a new sport, but it’s a new sport to Lapel Middle School.

They don’t have a pool, but the young Bulldogs — 15 of them — are part of the first-ever school swim team.

Taylor Puckett and Mollie Stephenson are the coaches, and both have daughters on the team. They approached middle school Athletic Director Jimmie Howell in 2019 about starting a team for this upcoming school year.

With Puckett’s mother, Mindy Kelly, the head coach for both the high school and middle school teams at Elwood, Lapel had an in on a place to swim.

It’s all worked out as the team began practicing in January and had its first meets last month.

“A couple of moms have kids in club swimming, and they wanted to get them involved in school swimming as well,” said Puckett, the head coach. “Swimming is such an individualistic sport, but when it’s part of the school there’s more of a team aspect.”

Puckett said the Lapel group, which has 11 girls and four boys from sixth to eighth grades, gets pool time when Elwood High School doesn’t have meets and piggy-backs off the Elwood Middle School schedule for meets of its own.

The Bulldogs have eight meets on the schedule for the season that started on Feb. 9 and wraps up with a meet March 16 at Hamilton Heights.

“Lots of people at Lapel have put a lot of dedication into making it possible for middle schoolers to have a swim team, and I’m very thankful to those people,” said seventh-grader Simon Nickelson, a club swimmer who has always wanted to be part of a school team.

Puckett said there are a handful of swimmers who have competed at the club level, but there is a large part of the team new to the sport at a competitive level.

Seventh-grader Bella Settlemire is one of the first-timers.

“I was super excited because I always wanted to swim on a team,” Settlemire said. “Our family was at a lake this summer, and my mom asked me if I’d like to join a swim team. A few months later I found out Lapel was going to have a team and I was excited for the opportunity.

“I’m getting close to my last year of middle school, and I want to try as many sports as possible. This was definitely on my list. I was excited to try a new sport and our coaches are very supportive.”

Howell said with the numbers and the connections with Elwood, everything has worked out well for the new team.

He said, initially, he thought there would be just two or three kids wanting to swim.

“It’s been a lot (of work) for the two coaches Mollie Stephenson and Taylor Puckett. They have done an awful lot to get this going, and we can’t thank Elwood High School enough and their administration for allowing us to use their pool,” Howell said. “We want to keep kids busy and involved in things. This is something where the kids in swimming were not involved in other sports in the winter, so it allows us to have more kids involved in sports in the winter months.”

With the interest this season, Howell says he sees the school continuing to have a team.

“I think we have some kids that are really good, and we’ve won some meets,” Howell said. “We have kids that are experienced swimmers for junior high age that have been swimming in clubs for several years. Some of kids are really good and other kids that aren’t as experienced and just learning are going to improve quite a bit.”

That’s already starting, Bella said.

“I was not very good when I started and now, I’m not trying to brag, but I feel that I have gotten better because of my coach,” she said.

Puckett swam in high school at Jay County and had previous coaching experience at the club level as well as being a high school assistant at Delta.

Along with competing and helping children get better, Puckett has seen this new team as a chance for students get together and meet new friends.

“I think the team camaraderie has been great,” she said. “A lot of these kids did not know each other coming into it. We have sixth graders through eighth graders. A lot of them had never met. The first couple of practices were awfully quiet; as the season progressed they have become good friends. They’re a great group of kids. They’re all very good in school as well, being really good athletes.”

The swimmers and their coaches have made the swim effort work, but another essential component of this inaugural season has been the parents.

Lapel does not provide transportation for the team, so parents have to make the 30-minute drive to Elwood to get their children to practices and meets.

“We’re relying heavily on the parents, and they have been great,” Puckett added. “Ninety percent of kids are at all the practices. They’ve been car-pooling or parents taking them and coming back to pick them up. They have been a whole lot of help.”

It’s been a positive experience all the way around.

“I really like how everyone is cheerful and cheers you on even if you are on the opposite team,” Settlemire said. “It’s not an aggressive sport, and everyone is kind and supportive of everyone. Our team is supportive of others. The coaches and the experienced swimmers critique us when need be, and we have a very supportive community.”

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Inaugural Lapel Middle School Swim Team Members

Arayah Alkove

Elle Contos

Nolan Donovan

Lilly Jacobs

Henry Ko

Sophie Marshall

Peyton May

Simon Nickelson

Keylee O’Keefe

Teagan O’Keefe

Chloe Sasser

Bella Settlemire

Ruby Soden

Katie Stephenson

Jonathan Tharp

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Coach Taylor Puckett

Coach Mollie Stephenson

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