Bowling Green State University Athletics
A Swimmer's Insight: Joëlle Scheps
September 06, 2012 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Hello Falcons!
My name is Joëlle Scheps and this will be my first year at BGSU! I'll be considered a transfer student, since I have already done two years of study in my home country, The Netherlands. I always wanted to study and swim in the USA, so I was very excited when I got an email from the coaches to join BGSU! I'd never been here before so when I went to the airport about a month ago I was a little bit nervous. But after my first weeks here at BGSU I definitely think I have made the right decision! I'm majoring in Business Administration with a specialization of Individualized Businesses.
Last week the official practices started. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this meant a swimming and a dry land practice. On Tuesday and Thursday we had a swimming, running and lifting practice. During the swimming practices we focused on the techniques of the different strokes (Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle) as well as the turns, start and body position. From now on, we will also have swimming practices on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon. The swimming practices will also become specialized for the different types of swimmers. We have a sprint group (50 & 100 meter swimmers) and a Mid-Distance/Distance group, who of course need different types of practices. I'll be in the Mid-Distance group, while I most of the time will be swimming 200m freestyle, 200m IM and 200m backstroke.
This weekend we spent the whole weekend together, doing a lot of fun activities for team bonding weekend. This year we have 14 freshmen—that makes a total of 25 swimmers, so we have a big team! We will go to a lot of meets this year, with highlights being the U.S. Short Course Nationals and MAC Championships! In about a month the first meets will start and a lot of them are here at BGSU! These meets are on September 29, October 5, October 12 and October 26. I really can't wait! In The Netherlands there are only 25 meter and 50 meter pools, so these will be my first meets in yards.
In the coming weeks we will be practicing hard to get ready for the season!
I hope to see you all during our meets!
GO FALCONS!
Joëlle
