Two Katy sisters are making a splash in synchronized swimming, a sport that is
much tougher than it looks and is mostly misunderstood. Synchronized swimmers
sometimes get a bad rap
—thought to look like mermaids with their gelatin slicked hair, thickly applied
make up and wildly colorful suits. Are they the
Rodney Dangerfields of athletes? The Maytag repairmen of swimmers?
Not when you realize these same athletes are the ones who must possess the
endurance of a marathon runner, the strength of a gymnast and the grace of a
dancer, all the while wearing a beaming smile. Their intricate, graceful
maneuvers in the water are synchronized with other swimmers as well as
synchronized to music piped in from underwater speakers. Imagine accomplishing
all that while never touching the bottom surface of the pool. Yet, they seem to
make it look effortless.
The Dressel sisters, Hillary, 10, and her older sister, Emily, 13, have all the
right makings for the sport of synchronized swimming. They
’re built like ballet dancers,
thin and statuesque. They love being in the water year round, even when the
temperature is so frigid you can hear their teeth chatter from across the pool.
The soft spoken sisters, who now live in Katy, don’t even mind when their teammates copy them; in fact, they hope to be surrounded
by other swimmers who mirror their every move.
Oddly enough, Emily began synchronized swimming in Canada, of all places, where
pool time is expensive and at a premium, and one expects to see ice hockey
players and snow skiers rather than swimmers. But the sport is popular there,
with many indoor recreational facilities that have several pools in each
complex.
The girl’s parents: mom, Barbara, and dad, Jason, are both Canadian nationals. Jason grew up in Calgary, Alberta, which is also where the family lived before
moving south to the United States two years ago. Barbara grew up in Edmonton,
which is north of Calgary.
Like many Canadian families, the Dressels are still huge ice hockey fans, but
they have taken nicely to outdoor sports with year round appeal. Evan, 12, is a
seventh-grader at Beckendorff Junior High and plays Lacrosse. Jason runs and
bikes year round.
Once Emily settled into Katy, she and her mom began searching for a synchronized
swimming team for Emily to join. They felt fortunate to find a start up club in
Sugar Land called the First Colony Synchro Stars coached by Tami Huff, an
experienced synchronized swimmer. The following year, Hillary joined too.
“I liked what I saw Emily doing. I wanted to join,” said Hillary, a fifth-grader at Bonnie Holland Elementary. “Now, my friends ask me what it is.”
If they really want to know, they should watch the girls practice in the outdoor
Stafford Municipal pool three times a week, not only in the sweltering heat but
in the cold weather, or rain as well.
The swimmers do dry land training for strength and flexibility, which is doing
movements on land with their arms that mentally prepares them to do the
movement in the water. Then there
’s conditioning water training, laps for endurance and synchronized skills and
routine training.
Hillary and Emily belong to the First Colony SynchroStars club, but are on
different age-grouped teams. Another Katy swimmer is Lauren Woltemate, a
freshman at Taylor High School. Many of the club
’s members are from Sugar Land and a few are from other nearby cities.
Emily, an eighth-grader at Beckendorff Junior High, competes in trios, duets and
solos in the 13-15 age group. Hillary is in the
elevens and twelves in duet and trio competitions. Both want to win at nationals.
Emily qualified and participated in age group nationals last summer in New York
in the Duet competition. Last year, Hillary
’s first year in the sport, she earned a first-place spot in regional
championships.
Maybe the sport is getting a little respect here after all. Last year, Emily and
a few of the older girls on the team were invited to perform at the newly
renovated Four Seasons Hotel in Houston for the grand opening.
“The girls (Hillary and Emily) are dedicated and focused swimmers. It’s a joy to work with these very dedicated,
diligent girls every week. I like their enthusiasm,” said Coach Tami Huff, a California native who was a competitive synchronized
swimmer and member of several professional shows. She
’s coached the sport on and off for last 20 years, and is well aware of just how
difficult the sport really is.
“I believe it’s one of the more difficult sports, because part of the challenge is to make it
look like it
’s not hard.”
The other challenge is to make sure everything is in place during competitions.
Mishaps are not unusual, like for instance when one of the Dressel sisters
mixed it up accidentally and did her
solo routine to her duet music.
Then there was the time Emily was competing in Calgary and she kicked off her
duet partner
’s nose clip during the competition. Nose clips help a swimmer remain immersed in
the water for long periods of time. Luckily her partner had a spare one clipped
on her suit and she was able to put it on with out too many people noticing.
Esther Williams, look out.
