New for the 2025-2026 season, the Menomonie High School Girls Swim team has three coaches: Haley Grace Harris, Hannah Schulte, and Andrea Nodolf.
Coach Haley is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with her graduate degree. She moved to Menomonie recently and is now working as a 6th-grade English teacher at Menomonie Middle School, along with being the head coach of the MHS girls’ swim team. Formerly, Haley was a swimmer for the Rice Lake Warriors, where she grew up. “I enjoy swimming because I like competing against myself, and pushing myself both mentally and physically, to perform at the best of my ability,” Haley said. “I love being on a team of girls who are all going through the same difficult obstacles, and who can bond together to be successful.” This is highly beneficial for the team, having someone as passionate about swimming as many of the team members are. Haley hopes for the season are for “…athletes to have fun, make lifelong friends, and become more successful students, and then athletes.” She said, “…All that I really ask for from them is their best effort in all that they do, and hopefully, with their best effort comes success in the sport.” Moving from where she went to school for 6 years in Madison to the small town of Menomonie is a big change, and her reasoning was wanting to move closer to family after she graduated, and knowing Menomonie was a good school district. Funnily enough, the person who interviewed her, the Middle School Assistant Principal, was someone she knew from childhood. She said, “My interview felt more like a catch-up between old friends at times than a stressful questionnaire. It was a no-brainer to take this job when I was offered two dream positions of teaching 6th-grade English and coaching girls’ swim and dive for the high school.”
The assistant coach, Hannah Schulte, has already had some experience coaching a swim team. She is the coach for the Menomonie Middle School swim team. Additionally, she is an English teacher for 8th grade in the middle school. This makes the transition better for those who are swimming in both middle and high school because they have a familiar person to connect with. “I wanted to see my middle school students continue to grow in high school,” said Coach Hannah. In high school, she was a swimmer in Auburndale, Wisconsin, and loved to swim the 100 Breast and 200 Free. After high school, she went on to college at UW-Eau Claire. She said she loves swimming because she feels calm doing it. “It’s relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. I wanted to continue being a part of swim because it was always such a positive experience in my own life,” said Hannah. After being a coach for the middle school team, she decided to be an assistant coach for the high school team after she talked with Coach Haley because they connected about being English teachers and their love for swimming. As for her goals for the season, Hannah said, “My main goal for the team is to grow as individuals and to learn the value of hard work and sportsmanship.” She is impressed with the team so far and says that they bring a fun spirit to meets and practice.
The team now has a dedicated diving coach, something that has not existed in recent years. The coach is Andrea Nodolf, who is also the Dunn County District Attorney. She was a swimmer at Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, for her first two years of high school, and then started diving for her last two due to an injury. She grew up swimming with her siblings, and they all swam year-round. Andrea also swam and dove at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Diving is something that she loves and is passionate about because it is a very acrobatic sport. “When you master a dive, I love the rush of doing a beautiful dive with a clean entry without any splash,” she said. She was asked by Coach Haley if she would be willing to help with diving, and now she is volunteering her time to coach the divers. She decided to take on the position because she loves the sport and seeing the divers overcome fears and make progress. She mentions, “The mental toughness a diver learns through the sport will help them throughout the rest of their lives. The mantra ‘if you believe it, you can achieve it’ is a mindset that applies in diving and is a skill that will translate to the girls later in life.” Her goals for the divers have already started to become fulfilled. To compete in diving, you need to have at least six dives learned, and the divers have already accomplished that. “I am blown away and so proud of how quickly four girls were able to learn this sport,” said Andrea. Next, she wants to get them to learning 11 dives and push through the fear that may come with it. Her final message for the divers and her goals for the season are “…I hope they leave the season with increased confidence in themselves, knowing that they can do scary things.”
The team has seen improvements already, and the season is going very well. The divers recently competed for the first time this season after learn a minimum of six dives. At the annual MHS relay meet, the Menomonie team took fifth, an improvement from prior years. Additionally, all swimmers on the team have been receiving personal bests and earning points for the team while competing at meets. There have been many top-three finishes, both for individual events and relays. Many swimmers have also been trying new events to see what everyone’s strengths are and what they may be good at that they have never tried before. A senior, Maddie Horvath, said, “This year I have PR’d in the 50 freestyle, the 200 IM, and the 100 butterfly [and] I have felt very good about my performance this season and I think everyone on the team is making great progress!” Another swimmer, Ellie Zydowsky, who is the junior captain, has also seen improvement, and her favorite thing about this season has been “…how fun and energetic everyone is on the team,” and she said, “We have such a great atmosphere.” Lastly, Kalyn Fisher, a senior captain, gave her thoughts about the season. She has broken multiple of her PR’s and has been swimming the fly in the medley, the fifty free, hundred fly, and even the five-hundred free a couple times.” She mentions, “As a whole the team is the most welcoming than it has ever been and I’m excited to see how the rest of the season goes!” One sentiment shared by all three is that the team has seen a lot of improvement already, and they are all very hopeful for the rest of the season.
The season has started in a positive spot with the addition of the new coaches, and they, along with the whole team, hope that it continues.
All photos by Kate Delong
