BY CLAIRE DUPRE, Freshman
BLYTHEWOOD - The pool was full of swimmers trying to beat their time. All the other team members were cheering them on to do their personal best.
Smith is making a big impact on the Blythewood community. She’s a Social Studies teacher, swim coach, and on top of all of that she’s a mom.
“In the fall, I am very busy while the high school swim season is going on. However, since I have taught for nine years, I have learned to balance coaching with my life as a teacher,” Smith said.
She lives a very busy life during the swim season. Her husband and 10-month-old son don’t get to see her that often, but both of them support her in what she is doing.
She coaches swim for the girls team at Blythewood High School and at the YMCA during the summer. She also teaches 7th grade Social Studies for the INC program at Kelly Mill Middle School.
“Coach Nicole pushes me to be the best I can be. She always makes sure everyone is doing their best,” says freshman Ellie Feuerstein.
People associate hard work with the amount of effort Smith’s puts into making her swim team stronger.
Some of her former students have joined the swim team this year and are trying to get used to calling her “Coach Nicole” and not “Mrs. Smith”.
“Mrs. Smith was my seventh grade teacher and I had been so used to calling her Mrs. Smith. On the swim team, everyone calls her Coach Nicole. Having her as a coach now is different compared to having her as a teacher,” said freshman Yaneli Figueroa.
Accomplishments
Smith wanted to become a teacher since seventh grade and after receiving a swimming from the University of Akron in Ohio she was able to fulfill two of her dreams at once. Swimming and becoming a teacher.
She majored in Education and earned specializations in Language Arts and Social Studies. Recently, in May she was awarded her Master's Degree in Education at Columbia College.
“I think my greatest accomplishment has been becoming a mother and still furthering my teaching career. When I was pregnant, many people told me to stay home with my child, quit my job and many told me not to finish my Master's Degree. However, I was determined to finish my degree and I did! I work every day to become a better teacher and mother. It is hard to do it all, but I think it is a big accomplishment to be a working mother,” Smith said.
Childhood and Mentors
Growing up, Smith had many swimmers she looked up to, but only two were her personal favorites.
“My favorites swimmer growing up was a swimmer named Janet Evans. She held World Records in the distance freestyles for years! I also looked up to a swimmer named Lindsay Benko because she was from my step dad’s hometown,” Smith said.
Her daily schedule is active all day long.
“I make sure that I plan out many things ahead of time for both teaching and swimming. Usually, I get behind on grading to an extent during the season, but I don’t think my students mind. It gives them an extra day or two to complete assignments,” says Smith.
Many of her swim students now have been swimming for years.
“I have been swimming for seven years now, and have been on a swim team for three years,” Figueroa said.
“I have been swimming since the summer going into fourth grade,” Feuerstein said.
Members of the girls team have learned to love her because of all the hard work she puts into her coaching and they think she has made the team better than it was before.
“She pushes all of us to be great and supports us through everything. At first it is hard because she makes us run and do many things on land, not in the water. Sometimes she makes hard sets of laps for us to do. Since the first practice I remember how hard she pushes us so we can all do our personal best,” Feuerstein said.
“I believe that Coach Nicole makes the team better because of the things that she does and says. At each swim meet we went to she would give everybody an inspirational quote. She helps the swimmers that sometimes struggle with certain strokes, turns, dives, etc. When assigning us our events for meets, she doesn't give the same ones over and over. She gives us different events to try them out so we can step out of our comfort zone,” Figueroa said.
Smith has helped many people in the Blythewood community with her swim team and hopes many of her students will become teachers one day.
“I hope students are inspired by their teachers and that many of your peers consider becoming teachers. We are experiencing a teacher shortage in this country right now. So we need dedicated people to enter the profession. I will be so proud if some of my students become teachers themselves,” Smith says.
Teaching and swimming means much to Smith, and wishes that all of her swim students will continue swimming and keep up all of their hard work.
