Maggie Herbert warms up before a meet at West Windsor South on Dec. 12, 2013. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
As is often the case in the world of athletics, Steinert senior Maggie Herbert turned an adversity into an advantage.
And the Spartan girls swim team has a top-flight freestyle swimmer because of it.
Herbert was a solid soccer player coming up through the Hamilton Township Recreation Soccer League and playing travel ball for the Hamilton Wildcats. She made the Spartans freshman team and was a lightning fast sweeper for the JV squad as a sophomore.
But years of pounding began taking their toll. Herbert’s right knee started to swell incessantly, and soccer was suddenly more painful than it was fun.
“It just wouldn’t not swell,” Herbert said. “It got to the point where it was too much swelling and apparently the two major tendons next to my knee cap were too loose so they had to cut them and re-tie them. It took me a good four months to get on my feet.”
Maggie decided to try swimming as a sophomore, hoping it might rehab her knee to the point where she would not need surgery. Plus, she had a little incentive.
Her dad, Mike, was a star swimmer at Hopewell Valley Central High School and also swam for Rider University. He served as the Bulldogs head coach for several years, guiding them to a Mercer County championship one season.
“I started swimming because of my knee, and because my grandpa (also named Mike) passed away,” Maggie said. “He would always come to my dad’s swim meets and encourage him, and my dad’s always wanted me to swim. They gave me a little nudge. So I was like, ‘I’ll give it a shot and see if it’s better for my knee.’”
Herbert said she realized she had a shot at being good almost immediately.
“Probably when I got in the pool,” she said with a laugh. “My dad said, ‘You’re gonna be good’ And my mom even thought that too. She was saying, ‘You’re definitely gonna get faster.’”
According to Maggie’s mom Kim, a cheerleader on several Hamilton West state championship squads in the early 1980s, Maggie started later than her older sisters, but lasted longer.
“We always hoped one of her sisters might swim,” Kim said. “We started them early, and they didn’t last. Maggie started the latest and is the one who stayed with it.”
Despite having never swam competitively, Herbert showed great promise as a sophomore. She finished ninth in the 50 freestyle in a time of 29.72, and was part of the fifth-place 200 free relay team with Sarah DeAngelo, Lauren Cruz and current teammate Hailey Thayer.
“That was a very fast team I was put on,” Herbert said. “They really pushed me to get even faster. That was definitely a highlight and the start of me really wanting to swim.”
Former Steinert coach Jacquelyn Nami-Henriksen, who stepped down prior to this season after getting a promotion, was not surprised at Herbert’s debut season. She actually got a scouting report.
“My initial impressions of Maggie were that she was as talented as her dad said she would be,” Nami-Henriksen said. “I received an email from Mr. Herbert shortly before the start of her first season. He explained that he used to coach swimming, and that he felt Maggie would be a good addition to the team in spite of the fact that she was a sophomore who did not swim for a club team.
“As soon as she got in the water, I knew that Mr. Herbert was correct. She was a natural.”
Despite finding a new career, the swimming did not rehab the knee enough and surgery was required in April. But Herbert’s initial swimming success prompted her to join the Hamilton Aquatics Club that summer, which would certainly make her a better high school swimmer.
Soccer was still in her system, however.
“At first, I went out just to see if I was any good at swimming, if I possibly could go into this sport and leave out soccer,” Herbert said. “But after my knee surgery I knew I still wanted to play. I tried getting back into soccer and I couldn’t, and it was a heart breaker.
“I needed to find something else to give me structure. Something to give me a will to do something else.”
She willed herself to one heck of a junior season.
In last year’s Mercer meet, Herbert finished tied for fifth in the 50 free (28.28), finished sixth in the 100 free (1:04.05) and was part of the school record-setting 200 free relay team (1:55.40) that includes current teammates Thayer, Tess Dalton and Maddie Horner. That quartet also qualified for states.
This past summer, Herbert qualified for the YMCA Nationals in the 50 and 100 freestyle for HAC and was also part of four relay teams that qualified.
She carried that momentum into this season, winning all eight events she swam (four individual, four relays) in the season’s first two meets. Most impressive was her times in the 50, which were both in the 25-second range. That was nearly three seconds faster than where she ended last season.
“Over the two years I coached Maggie, she consistently got faster every few weeks,” Nami-Henriksen said.“ Her technique was great to begin with, but she made improvements to her start and turns. She joined Hamilton Aquatics and Sue Welsh and the coaching staff there worked with her, too. It is incredibly rare for a swimmer to be hitting her times after just three years …or ever, for that matter.”
There is often pressure on first-time club swimmers that start at such an advanced age. But Herbert knew it had to be done if she hoped to succeed.
“I wanted more workouts,” she said. “I was very used to go, go, go! That was me. I wanted to keep going.
“I wanted to see if I could fix my stroke, if I could get faster. That was a huge motivation for me.”
Herbert’s advancement as a swimmer has been a plus for Caroline Fling, who has taken over the Steinert reins this season. Fling not only has someone with talent, she has the kind of leader that’s necessary during a transition season.
“Maggie’s a very strong and very consistent swimmer,” said Fling, a former Nottingham standout. “I can put her in any spot, ask her to do it and she’ll give 110 percent. She’s also very motivating to the other girls, she knows exactly what to say to motivate them. She’s a great team player and a great swimmer.
“She’s very good at relating and telling the girls how it is and helping to encourage them. When they feel that they don’t do as well as they want, she reminds them that they can only do their best. She encourages them that they are doing very well.”
That’s because Herbert had been in their position just two years earlier, and remembers it all too well.
“Some of them are brand new, just like I was,” she said. “I know what it’s like to go into this. It’s not easy.”
One thing that Fling really likes about Herbert is her versatility, as she can do every stroke but the breast. Still, Herbert considers herself a freestyler first and foremost and is gunning for Horner’s school record in the 50. She is also hoping for a high finish at counties.
And then, as unbelievable as it may have sounded in her freshman year, she hopes to swim in college and has been looking at Ramapo and several other schools.
“I am certain that Maggie has a future in college swimming because of her times, and especially because of her late start,” Nami-Henriksen said. “When a college coach understands that she has only been racing for three years and is always getting faster, they will realize that her best races and times are still in her future. She has not plateaued like many swimmers do by the time they reach college.
“In addition, because swimming is still new to her, it’s also still fun, which will keep her going longer. I really think she is capable of great things in the future, and I would not be surprised at all to hear that she ends up with All-American status by the time she graduates college.”
The future definitely looks bright for Herbert, even if her past problem pops up every now and then.
“My knee still has its flare-ups and its moments,” she said. “I have to give it a little pep talk, (tell it) ‘You can do this race!’”
Judging by the results, the knee listens.
,
