Madison Ford
Entertainment Editor
Swimming, one of the most rigorous sports at Coppell High School, maintains a low-key reputation. However, the challenges of competitive swimming are being brought to light, and junior Hayden Henry is leading the way, breaking five school records this year alone.
Henry started swimming at a young age; however, his passion for the sport has grown with time.
“I started swimming when I was 4 because my dad has been a swim coach forever,” Henry said. “But I didn’t get into swimming deeply until I was 13, when we moved up to Coppell.”
Hayden’s father, CHS swim coach Patrick Henry, has been coaching Hayden his entire life, and because of this he has had the opportunity to see Hayden grow as a swimmer and a person.
“I have been his primary coach for the past nine or 10 years,” Patrick said. “There are a lot of dynamics to it. Hayden is an individual. He is not like what you would think. He is not out there like ‘yay me.’ He is for the team, and pulling for others and challenging others to be their best.”
As part of the CHS swim team, Hayden trains daily to improve his swimming technique. This commitment to training paid off as he set five new school records this year alone in races that include the 500 yard freestyle, 200 yard individual medley, 100 yard butterfly, 200 yard medley relay, 400 yard freestyle relay.
This year is not Hayden’s first time to break swim barriers. Last year, Hayden set a school record as well in the 200 yard freestyle, and he was only a sophomore.
“The first record that I ever broke was last year; there is nothing like it,” Hayden said. “You just broke a school record, you’re on top of the world.”
Breaking any record in swimming is not a simple feat, and Hayden and his fellow teammates work strenuously everyday in order to achieve the physical ability necessary to break records and win meets.
“As far as what we work on, we work on everything,” Patrick said. “We work on head, position, arm position, arm angle, pitch, catch, body rotations, breathing pattern, how you breathe, when you breathe, how much to breathe, where to breathe, what to do, hand position. It is very, very complex. And we work on everything at the same time. And it is not any one thing, but it is everything.”
A level of mental preparation was also part of Hayden’s process prior to his swims, and his record-breaking races were no exception.
“Well before a race, you tend to get a lot of goals for that race,” Hayden said. “At the beginning of the day, I went into the day thinking ‘today I want to get four records’, but as each race gets closer you slowly narrow those goals down till you are right on the blocks about to go, and your only goal is winning. And I think that that really helps me focus on a race, because I start out thinking this is what I want to go overall.”
The intense physical and emotional toll swimming takes on those who pursue the sport is challenging as well as rewarding. Patrick believes it is Hayden’s ability to channel the sport’s obstacles into personal success that sets him apart.
“He loves to train and he loves to win,” Patrick said. “And when you learn how to do whatever it takes to win, regardless of the pain, because it’s about pain management; swimming is about dealing with pain. He’s learning ways to channel it to stay focused to his objective and to make it happen.”
Hayden not only commits himself to athletic excellence, but pushes his teammates to do the same.
“He has figured some things out that help him closer to his best,” Patrick said. “So he tries to challenge others to step up and be their best. We swim tough intervals. There are times when they swim sets that are an hour in duration and they never get more than seven seconds rest every two to three minutes. And they are getting tired, and it starts overloading and building up and building up and you want to stop because you are in a lot of pain, not extreme pain, but a lot of pain. And you want to stop and if someone tries to stop he will be like ‘No, we can do it!’”
This strong sense of commitment and leadership is not lost on his fellow swimmers.
“He really is a good example of a person who does work hard at every single practice,” former varsity swim captain and senior Claire Beuter said. “People can slack off sometimes or get tired near the end of the season, but he really works hard and he’s there early every morning, always on top of the sets and leading everyone off. He’s really good about being a leader even though he’s not very old.”
After breaking so many school records, Hayden admits that while the moment does not feel the same as it did that first magic moment of athletic triumph, each broken record brings with it a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. The races that Hayden conquered were no easy feat either.
“The 500 free was a difficult race,” Hayden said. “It is a really complicated swim. The 500 is just a hard event in general. But I think it was the hardest because you have to pace yourself, but not overly pace yourself and forget to go fast. But the [400] freestyle relay was also a really hard one, because the people who set that record before us, they had four guys who all got up and went really fast. And Luke Meyer, another [CHS] swimmer, he got up at the beginning of the race and went a 49.8 which is really fast, and once he did that, the other three of us pretty much knew that we could get.”
Breaking these race records in swimming can be reminiscent of the not-so-distant 2008 Summer Olympics when Michael Phelps broke seven world records, four individual and three group. While Hayden’s success was on a more local scale, their grandeur is not lost on those who know the rarity and value.
“A lot of the records for swimming have been the records for like five years or more, so breaking them is a huge deal,” Beuter said. “It is such a rare occurrence that this year there have been so many that it is amazing, and everyone is so impressed.”
For Hayden, however, it is not the breaking of records that defines his love of the sport. In addition to going fast, and the sense of accomplishment in winning, the camaraderie of swimming hits home for this talented athlete.
“In swimming, you make friends by getting up at 6:30 [am] in the morning and treading back and forth through water, while chlorine slowly eats away at your skin in silence for nearly two hours,” Hayden said. “And those people are my closest friends.”
200 yard freestyle: “1:46.34” Lewisville ISD Aquatic Center 11/20/10
500 yard freestyle: “4:44.53” Lewisville ISD Aquatic Center 11/19/11
200 yard IM (individual medley) “1:55.49” Lewisville ISD Aquatic Center 11/19/11
100 yard butterfly: “54.47” Coppell YMCA 10/18/11
200 yard medley relay: “1:42.50” Lewisville ISD Aquatic Center 11/19/11
400 yard freestyle relay: “3:19.19” Lewisville ISD Aquatic Center 11/19/11
