Athletes begin playing sports at an early age for various reasons.

Macy Williams began swimming with the Brownstown Brave Wave Swim Club when she was 5-years-old, and said she has always enjoyed being in the water.

“It is something I found enjoyable,” Williams said. “I just always felt like it was a comfort for me. It was a good stress-reliever.”

Over the years, Williams has changed her events while swimming for the Seymour High School team.

“I went from butterfly to breaststroke to freestyles,” Williams said. “So, I’ve done distance and I’ve done a lot of specialty strokes.”

Williams said this season she has swam breaststroke and the 500 free.

“I like the 500 because it’s a pace,” she said. “It gives you longer to kind of focus and get your mind off the other stresses.”

She usually swims a leg in the medley relay and 400 free relay.

Williams switches between breast and free style in the medley relay.

“I enjoy it because it kind of gets you warmed up and a little bit pumped because everybody is still high in energy and they’re not wore out yet, so it’s a very fun event to do,” Williams said.

She said practice is key to having time drops in your events.

“Practice is really important because it’s kind of like what prepares you to what you’re going to be at a meet. It works on your strengths and weaknesses, and it allows you to improve on the little details,” Williams said. “Overall, it makes a better performance for you in the end than what you would have done without so much effort in it. I think effort is the key to making sure good things happen.”

The Seymour swim teams practice eight times a week, including Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings beginning at 6 a.m.

Williams said, “It takes dedication, but I wouldn’t change it. It helps us improve as a team, and practice is a start to where improvement begins. Practices are tough, but they help us improve in and out of water.”

The Owls will host Jennings County Saturday morning, then don’t have another meet until Jan. 5 at Floyd Central.

“The winter break is kind or our conditioning time,” Williams said. “A lot of the practices are hard, so at the beginning we start out with kind of easier practices, and as we go through practices it gets a little harder, and then we kind of taper off the hard practices by the time we come back into school so it really builds our strength and stuff while we’re out of the pool.

“We don’t have to worry about meets conflicting with the hard workouts, so we can still go home and rest, but it really builds muscle and endurance during that time.”

Williams said she enjoys the home meets because of the fan support.

“I like the energy. We have higher energy at the home meets because we have more of a crowd and that energy keeps us going, keeps us motivated through the events, and you can hear all the yelling and it kind of gets you amped up,” she said.

Williams said she has enjoyed attending SHS because of all the opportunities she is able to take part in.

“The teachers are really helpful, and they all want to help you reach your best potential,” she said. “I like swimming here because it‘s a little more of a competitive edge. I’m looking into the medical field and Seymour has more medical options than Brownstown offered me. Especially with Schneck (Hospital) there are a lot more medical opportunities that I wouldn’t have had if I had went to Brownstown.”

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Name: Macy Williams

High school: Seymour

Parents; Jeff and Kelli Williams

Siblings: Evan, Logan

Sports: swimming 4 years

Organizations: band, Latin Club

Plans after high school: attend University of Indianapolis, study nursing

Favorite food: grilled cheese

Favorite singer: Michael Jackson

Favorite movie: Finding Nemo

Favorite team: Indiana University

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