Heyer-Olsen wins Woodbury Award

Once, when Jennifer Heyer-Olsen was coaching St. Charles East's girls swim team, her squad was considerably behind Rosary as the divers took center stage.

And things got worse because the Saints divers couldn't hit a reverse dive.

So Heyer-Olsen made a deal with the Saints: Rescue the meet, and she would perform a reverse dive, just to show that anyone could do one.

The Saints rallied to tie the Beads, and Heyer-Olsen dressed in her coaching attire headed to the board and performed a passable reverse dive.

The moral of the story? There wasn't much Heyer-Olsen wouldn't do in order to motivate her teams. And thanks to that, she spent six Saturday afternoons fully-clothed in a swimming pool, floating with the state trophy.

Heyer-Olsen put St. Charles girls swimming on the map, and the Illinois Swimming Association honored her with its ultimate honor on Dec. 7 when it presented her with the Bruce Woodbury Award, which is the equivalent to enshrinement in the association's Hall of Fame.

“If they accomplished a goal, I wasn't afraid to do something silly,” Heyer-Olsen said. “I did that flip if I tried that now, I'd probably kill myself. But it was always a matter of what we could do next, what would be funny and maybe what would be crazy. But we were on a mission and we supported one another.”

Heyer-Olsen graduated from Lyons Township in 1983 and mentioned that she played all manner of sports while growing up. And her spirited side showed then as well; she was a cheerleader for the Lions.

“I played volleyball,” Heyer-Olsen said. “I was on the varsity basketball team as a freshman. I did ballet, which I felt helped my athletic ability. But swimming was the hardest for me. I put myself in the most pain while I was doing it. I felt it challenged me the most. For some reason, I felt like it shaped who I am.”

But swimming took hold and propelled her to incredible heights. After graduation, Heyer-Olsen swam for Michigan State and captained the Spartans. Her time at St. Charles East began in 1989, when the girls team was modestly successful, but nowhere near to the level of the powerhouse boys program.

But in Heyer-Olsen, the school had the right person for the job of turning the girls swim team into the same kind of juggernaut as the boys program.

“When I first started out, I had all the energy in the world,” Heyer-Olsen said. “I had this vision of being able to develop these girls into more than just swimmers. The first year was me kind of figuring things out. Then I knew there was a talent base here, and we started setting goals.”

State titles didn't come overnight, but the Saints immediately started climbing the ladder toward their eventual dominating form. In her first season, the Saints finished third and earned the second state trophy in program history.

From that point, St. Charles East finished in the Top 10 every year through 2001.

“We had an intense motivation to build a tradition,” Heyer-Olsen said. “The 90s were a crazy time. Sometimes I wish I could have slowed it down and enjoyed it a little more and that I could have embraced how awesome we really were. But getting married in that time and having babies there was a lot going on.”

Starting in 1994, St. Charles East embarked on its six-run as state titlist. While those teams were good and had top swimmers, Heyer had a way of getting the most out of everyone on her team.

Her methods could be unorthodox. She once kissed a pig. Another time, she let her team color her hair in the school colors of Orange and Black. And then there was that back dive at Rosary.

“I think it became, for me, sometimes risking embarrassment,” Heyer-Olsen said. “I went out a little bit extra just to let the girls know just how much I truly cared about them. I would go to great lengths to show that to them.”

But behind it all was a solid coaching philosophy. The Saints used mental imaging as much as any team, retiring to the aerobics room at the Norris Center to focus before practices.

“We did a lot of different things,” Heyer-Olsen said. “Every year, we had a theme. Maybe it was to give each girl a word, and they had to do everything with that word in team-building. I read the “Chicken Soup” books to them. We had a lot going on, but they believed in me and that everything I was doing would make them faster.”

Heyer-Olsen's athletes embraced the need to work as hard or harder than any other team in the state in order to be successful. There were outstanding athletes such as Kristen Brennan and Laura Lipskis both Illinois Swimming Association swimmers of the year. But those two and many more knew the pain of preparing properly for the state meet.

“We had fun but those teams worked hard,” Heyer-Olsen said. “In fact, I think a lot of those teams worked harder than teams do now because things have evolved since then. There are things like yoga and Pilates and other things that are being incorporated to core strength and balance and we didn't do that. Those girls knew that, on certain days, it wasn't going to be pretty in the pool. But they did it.”

And it took all a myriad of components to form six straight title-winning teams. The Saints won the 1994 state title without having a state champion in any event. St. Charles East accomplished that feat again in their 1996 title-winning state meet.

“They were a team,” Heyer-Olsen said. “One girl doesn't win a state championship. Was Kristen Brennan incredibly fast and awesome? Definitely. But she also missed a practice in four years. Laura Lispkis was the same way. Some of those girls who scored maybe 1 or 2 points girls like Erin Lundy, Paula Nosal, Lauren Nosal, Erika Vohnout some of those kids, they made all the difference.”

Although she has been honored for her contributions to Illinois swimming, Heyer-Olsen is still very active in coaching, though not as the head of any program.

Heyer-Olsen worked with Rob Rooney when he arrived at St. Charles in 1991. Rooney left to coach the girls program at Waubonsie Valley and eventually became the head coach at St. Charles North. Heyer-Olsen left coaching in 2002 to concentrate on her family, She returned to coach Neuqua Valley for two seasons, to devote herself to her husband Bill and daughers Hannah and Hailey.

But then Rooney stepped in again and offered a chance to be his assistant at St. Charles North. Heyer-Olsen accepted and just finished her second year working with the North Stars.

“I truly believe her heart never left St. Charles,” Rooney said. “She'll always be remembered as the coach at St. Charles High School in those championship years, and she has always been a fan of the entire swimming community in St. Charles.”

Over two decades, Rooney and Heyer-Olsen have forged an understanding and have created a “dream team” coaching staff in the same way Joe Cabel and Dave Bart have done with St. Charles East's boys swimming program.

“I have to say that (Rooney) has been an awesome friend,” Heyer-Olsen said. “We get along well. He has given me probably the best opportunity in coaching because of how I care about Bill and my two girls and my family. I couldn't do this without the way he's abbreviated the work for me. But I still get to be involved. I still get to do what I did in the same way, but I'm not the head coach. And that's OK. I don't need that role. This is fun for me.”

Measuring Heyer-Olsen's success can be done in many ways. There are certainly team titles and there were numerous All-America-level swimmers who graduated and performed in college. But Heyer-Olsen counts the number of former athletes who are still in-touch with her as a success that goes beyond all the trophies.

“I have so many great relationships with those girls,” Heyer-Olsen said. “I've seen them get married. Kate Hensel just had a baby. Erin Lundy has two babies. Paul Nosal just got married. The list is long, and that's been a lot of fun for me.”