This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
11/16/2016 11:00 PMLast summer, East Haven and Wilbur Cross high schools announced that they were banding together to form a co-op girls’ swim squad for the 2016 fall season. Laura Rosado, a junior at Cross, was excited to join program as she’s been swimming for the past seven years, but had been unable to do so at the high school level. Laura signed up and wound up having an excellent campaign with the Yellowjackets.
“I was so excited to start recruiting people and making outreach efforts. When I heard about it, I was excited to bring people into the sport and inspire them to stay and improve,” says Laura. “In the beginning of the year, because it was fresh, a lot of people came up to me looking to get involved. I could’ve made a better push to get the word out there, but some people need that personal connection. Right now, people either know or they don’t know about our team and I’d like to change that.”
Laura has been competing for the Omni Swim Club at Yale University since she was nine and noticed that most athletes at those meets don’t live in New Haven, making her recruiting efforts for the new co-op team more difficult. Despite that, Laura has thrived this season when it comes to her own performance in the pool. Laura has been involved in everything for the Yellowjackets, including relays, which she doesn’t even do with her club team. Laura enjoys swimming relays with the high school squad, but knows that individual events like the backstroke are her bread and butter.
“Backstroke has been my favorite since I started swimming because I didn’t have to worry about breathing. Luckily, I like it and it likes me back,” she says. “My club coach tells me I’m not strong enough to swim the way others can with the backstroke, but I have a strong kick and that’s what gets me through. I don’t have the greatest upper body strength, but I can get away with it because of my kicking form.”
Laura’s years of experience with Omni put her in position to have a solid season for East Haven-Cross. Two weeks ago at the SCC Championship, Laura made All-SCC in both the 100 backstroke and butterfly. Laura placed second with a time of 58.19 seconds for the backstroke and was third in the 100 fly at 58.89.
“Through the club team, I’ve done much more high-pressure meets, so it felt like any other to me since I recognized a lot of the same girls who swim the club season. I just really enjoyed going out with the team and having support from everyone. The energy from the team with everyone who hadn’t done meets before, it was great to see them there and show them what it’s like. I hope it inspires them to work harder,” says Laura. “I’ve never been a part of the high school scene, so when people say going All-SCC is really cool, I don’t see it. I look at the bigger picture. I can excel here, but it’s not the next level. It’s not such a big deal for me coming from my club experience.”
East Haven-Cross Head Coach Dave Oshana appreciates the wealth of experience and overall swimming knowledge that Laura brings to his team.
“She comes to the team with years of experience, which was evident on the first day of practice. She is fast in all strokes and events and, in my opinion, is one of the best backstrokers around. It is wonderful to have her on the team as her abilities and maturity allows her to be a positive role model to the girls. They really look up to her,” says Oshana. “Laura is an extremely focused, composed young lady who has exceptional athletic abilities. This allows her to be one of the top swimmers in the SCC division and competitive with the best in the state.”
Laura says that she’d like to continue her swimming career in college and wants to keep promoting the sport to both her peers and in her community.
“I’ve been lucky throughout my career. I’ve had opportunities to go out of state to compete at a high level. Some people at my school don’t even have the opportunity to learn how to swim beyond a half-year course. I hope to bridge that gap,” says Laura. “I think swimming is an important skill in life because it prevents drowning and even just makes people more comfortable around the water. I think as long as you practice enough, swimming at a basic level is an important skill everyone needs to learn.”