“Training for me is ya know, getting up at 6 a.m., working out, lifting with our assistant coach, Coach Garnett. We get up [and] lift, I go to classes, come back, get up shots for 45 minutes or an hour. Then I meet back with him and get in an hour and a half of ball handling, shots off the dribble, post moves, various things. Depending on the day, either get up more shots or go to open gyms.”
“It’s been a crazy road. Lot of ups and downs. Lot of failure, probably one of the hardest times to go through is failing at something that you think you like. It was a tough start here at Whitman; we weren’t good. We didn’t have any direction, we kinda just threw things together. To see us come together as a team and bring in guys who play hard and compete hard everyday has been something really special; changing the culture here is something I’ll never forget. It’s all thanks to Coach Bridge and Coach Airy who have been there from the start and have guided me into the man that I am today.”
“The experience at the Portsmouth Invitational was amazing, and something that I will never forget. I was able to compete against the best college seniors in the country, and was able to prove to everyone that I belong there.”
“The whole tournament was great because we were able to showcase our skills in front of countless agents, scouts and various teams from around the world. I had a great time playing with my teammates as well; we played well as a group, especially not having met each other before then. I personally felt that I did not play up to my potential, but my teammates played well and fueled us to a third place finish.”
Katie Tackman
“I just fell in love with the team right away. It was really fun to have this group of people that’s just this huge family that you get to be a part of.”
Credit: Allie Felt
“Well, when you’re the one that knows the ropes, it’s definitely a shift because you look at things differently. They call me “Mama Tackman” on the team. I really embrace that role of welcoming in the new freshmen, getting everyone in line of what we’re doing and what we’re about. I had that on my high school team, but I know a lot of other swimmers didn’t have that on their high school or club team, so it became really important to me, and then to assume a leader role was something pretty special and something that I took very seriously.”
“I’m enjoying the break, but I am also way into cross training. I’m excited I decided to do swimming because how many times do you get to say you were a part of a collegiate team? Having that opportunity to compete, it’s pretty amazing. I put a lot of my other interests on the back burner because you only get to do this once.”
“I want to take some time off before I pursue grad school and other types of higher education. I also want to hopefully teach English as a second language in a Spanish-speaking country; I definitely want to keep building my fluency in Spanish and to keep traveling. And I am really interested in social entomology and how groups of people interact with insects; particularly in the Western World insects have a really negative stigma. I want to figure out how we get beyond that because they are such an important part of the ecosystem.”
