Lake Park's Casper remembers the words of 'guardian angel'
Aaron Casper of Lake Park is having an extraordinary senior year and he's dedicating it to the memory of his club coach, Andy Rose, of the Palatine Swimming Club, who passed away in December.
"Andy made me realize that swimming was my sport and I should give 100 percent all the time," Casper said. "He taught that you should do everything to your full potential, so you never have any regrets in life."
Casper, primarily a sprinter, qualified for state as both a sophomore and as a junior.
He kicked it up several notches under Rose's tutelage and expects to make it to the finals this year in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, and he believes that he and his Lake Park teammates can score in two relays.
He also wants to lead the Lancers to a second straight top-10 finish, despite the graduation of former state champion Bryant Honsa. They finished ninth last year.
"Aaron has always had the natural ability," said Lake Park coach Dan Witteveen. "He really feels the water the way you should, and that's something you can't teach. And he has a sprinter's desire to go fast. He always had the potential to be one of the best in the state, but to make it to the next step you have to swim year-round. And Aaron's experience with coach Andy really improved him in every way."
Witteveen, who has coached Casper for many years, said the sprinter would come back from training sessions with Rose with great excitement and talk about the hard work he was doing.
"This year Aaron improved a lot and it shows in practice," Witteveen said. "Now he's one of the leaders. This was Bryant's team last year, and now he's helping this year's squad forge an identity of its own. He's working incredibly hard."
"Coach Witteveen has been a big part of my life both as a coach and as a mentor," Casper said. "And Andy and the added encouragement he gave me got me to that next level.
"He would pull me out of practice to compliment me on how hard I was working. He came to state and watched me and the other kids he coached. He taught me to love swimming by pushing me harder than I ever thought I could go," Casper said. "When I couldn't make a set, he would yell at me to do it and say that I could do anything I could put my mind to. This year I'm going to try to qualify for nationals and junior nationals. I never did that before."
And yet, according to Casper, Rose wasn't just a tough taskmaster.
"His practices were a joy to go to," Casper said. "He was like a goofball, not really that serious. He was very funny and great to be around. He was like a kid. He was one of us."
When Casper heard of Rose's death last December from an infection that developed shortly after surgery , he was devastated.
"I broke down right away," Casper said. "It doesn't seem real that's he's gone. I expect that when I go to Palatine after state, I'll see that he'll be there to coach."
Casper's dramatic improvement and his attitude change have also had an impact on his life decisions.
Until last year, he was planning to join the marines after high school. Now he's going to Delta State on a full swimming scholarship.
"Andy's the one who convinced me that I could swim on a national college level," Casper said. "I wasn't even thinking about that before. I didn't love swimming or school, and now I'm even getting better grades in school. He was like my guardian angel. He affected a lot of kids that way. He even sent texts to me when I was swimming for Lake Park to make sure I was doing what I should be doing."
Casper says that every time he swims he thinks about Rose and tries his hardest to follow about what Rose would want him to do.
"Now I'm the one who tells everyone that if you're good at something, give it everything you have," Casper said. "If you don't, you'll have regrets in life. I'm carrying on his message. "