Zima feels at home in St. Charles North family

Many athletic teams call themselves "one big family." At St. Charles North this fall, the girls swim team took that concept to an entirely deeper level.

And one of the benefits to the team-as-family approach has been sophomore Lauren Zima, who is quietly blossoming into one of the new superstars on a team that has produced no shortage of talented athletes over the years.

"You started with a family of five," Zima said. "Then you combined with another family to make 10 and then your team of 10 combined with another group to make 20. Now we're together with the girls who are going to sectional and, hopefully, the state meet."

The byproduct of such combinations has paid dividends both in and out of the water. A team of 55 swimmers has managed to regain much of the closeness it had when there were only 30 on the roster.

"I'm made so many more friends on the team," Zima said. "It's been a lot of fun. The meets have been a lot of fun. People get into cheering so much more and it's just been fun this season."

All athletes need some sort of support group, and the idea that swimming is an individual sport is only true in the sense that athletes are in the water alone as they compete. But the rest of the time, a swim team is a social organism just like every other sports team.

For an athlete like Zima, finding her way through the season has been helped immeasurably by the fact that the has an on-deck "family" to support her.

"It really has helped out a kid like (Zima)," St. Charles coach Rob Rooney said. The family concept was Rooney's idea.

"Six or 10 years ago, we were a small team and everyone knew each other. I missed that total feeling of smallness. That's there this whole thing triggered in my mind. I think it will grow over time and I think (Zima) is the kind of kid who can definitely grow within that."

Zima and the rest of her North Stars family travel to St. Charles East on Saturday for the annual girls swimming Sectional meet. Rosary and West Aurora head to Neuqua Valley for their sectional meet. Diving starts at 9 a.m. in both meets while swim finals begin at 1 p.m.

Zima will be competing for the North Stars in the 500-yard freestyle, the 100 butterfly and relays. Her sense of expectation shows how much she has grown in her two seasons in the St. Charles North program.

"I want to qualify, and I'd really like to make the Top 12 in state in both events," Zima said. "Especially the 500, that would be really neat. Rooney's talked about placing and scoring with me this season."

For much of her swimming life, Zima was happy to be just one of the girls on a team - attending practice now and again, swimming in competitions and sort of floating along.

Then somehow the turbochargers got switched on and Zima has become the latest jetfoil in the water at St. Charles North. In fact, the sophomore has put herself in position to have a breakout meet at the St. Charles East sectional.

"I wasn't very good for a long time," Zima said. "Until eighth grade, I wasn't very committed. I didn't come to practice often ­­- I came because my friends came. I made a lot of really good friends and I got to hang out with them."

At this point in her life, Zima lived in North Carolina. Then she moved to Illinois, one of the fastest states in the nation for high school girls swimming.

"In North Carolina, you know who all the fast people were and there were only a few of them," Zima said.

Now at St. Charles, Zima became a member of the St. Charles Swim Club. After a modest freshman season, the had a chat with St. Charles North coach Rob Rooney and St. Charles East coach Joe Cabel - who both coach the city's club team.

"(Cabel) and I had the opportunity to work with her a lot this summer," Rooney said. "This summer, she made a lot of strides as a 'total package' swimmer. Ever since then, she's been on a pretty good mission."

Although she didn't qualify for the state meet, she was allowed to travel to Evanston last year as an alternate on the North Stars relay teams.

"I was really upset," Zima said. "I watched everyone else get their cuts and I didn't and I was really upset. I watched all the people at the state meet and realized how fast Illinois swimming is and I wanted to be a part of that. I took Thanksgiving week off and came back and was really driven."

An athlete with very high standards, Zima has learned to deal with the reality that sometimes those standards won't be met. This is where the St. Charles North family comes into play.

"If I don't meet those high standards, it brings my confidence down," Zima said. "This fall has been really good. I've improved my times so much in all events. My confidence has gone up. The team has been really close with people supporting you. That really boosts your confidence."

Zima won the Upstate Eight Conference title in the 100 butterfly and Rooney describes her as "an up-and-coming stud." But parlaying that success into something at the state level is another matter, and Rooney said he is not going to place that sort of pressure on his surging sophomore star.

"I have my expectations of what (Zima's) capable of, and I don't like to talk about that," Rooney said. "Anyone's beatable on any given day and anyone's capable of success on a given day if they have prepared enough - and she has done that work."

One thing this season has done for Zima is to give her the sense that there is a life beyond high school swimming. She is no longer halfhearted about her approach, and the consensus is that what success she sees in this year's sectional and state meet will just be a foretaste of things to come.

"I never thought it was possible to go to the junior national meet or to swim in college before this year," Zima said. "I never wanted to swim in college. Now it's a big goal of mine. It's made me aware of what's out there for swimming. It's not a recreational thing. It's a really competitive deal."