Staff writer
Hillsboro swim team coach Stephanie Moss stepped back in to lead the Hillsboro swim team this year, after serving several years as an assistant. She was the head coach in 2011.
“I just love coaching,” Moss said. “There is so much you can teach kids from the platform of sports, so many things that can translate to life lessons later on.”
Moss, who grew up in the Kansas City area, was a soccer and swimming athlete during her younger years.
“I used to swim the 400-meter free style and the 100-meter butterfly competitively, but that was many years ago,” she said.
A Hillsboro resident with her family since 1995, Moss now prefers to work from the sidelines instructing the team of 64 swimmers, including her two children.
“Our practices are no easy thing,” she said. “In fact, they can feel pretty harsh at times, but the kids are very committed and despite all the other activities they are involved in, are working hard to spend time in the water perfecting their events.”
Moss said she was excited to see swim team numbers up this year and looked forward to Saturday meets.
“Our older swimmers are very experienced,” she said. “Hillsboro will be hosting the league meet this year on July 13, and they are all working toward the goal of winning that.”
Moss said she also had a large group of new swimmers exhibiting amazing talent this early in the season.
“Whatever sport kids become involved in, it becomes a platform for life,” Moss said. “The work ethic they learn in the pool and the tangible rewards they get from posting better times and earning blue ribbons, those are invaluable lessons.”
Swim team practices for Hillsboro swimmers started in May. The team competed in their first meet Saturday.
“It was really amazing to see all the improved times so early in the season,” Moss said.
Moss is a teacher at the Marion County Special Education Cooperative OASIS in Florence. She enjoys napping in the summer when she is not coaching soccer or swimming.
She is the organizer of the Marion County soccer club, MC United.