Making a big splash with charitable work
TOWN OF MERTON – Current Arrowhead girls swimmers know there is a lot to live up to whenever they enter the pool to compete.
The program has finished as the WIAA Division 1 state champion 12 times since 1970 and runner-up another 11 times. The Warhawks are the reigning champions, having set three state meet records last year. For all their accolades, however, 11th-year head coach Ruth Ann Ahnen is most proud of the legacy her team has left out of the pool in recent years.
“I wanted the girls to give back to their community, I wanted them to create a legacy, and I wanted them to give back in some way,” Ahnen said of her mindset when she first joined the coaching staff 16 years ago. “We always want to develop leadership as kids go from freshman to sophomore and junior to senior.”
This year, as has become tradition, members of the Arrowhead girls swim team have taken part in several charitable initiatives. Athletes were divided into two teams for a competitive food drive to benefit Hartland Area Food Pantry earlier this fall. Ahnen said she was nervous about how that was going after hearing little throughout the drive but was shocked upon her arrival to the Arrowhead natatorium on deadline day. Nonperishable food items lined an entire side of the 50-yard swimming pool.
“Last year they doubled anything they had done before, but this year they doubled that,” Ahnen said. “They had seven SUVs and two huge trucks full of food. The Hartland food pantry was empty, but when we left, it was overwhelmingly filled.”
Senior Dani Stemper said dividing the team in two actually helped inspire each side to give its all to late-summer shifts soliciting donations at neighborhood grocery stores.
“This is a really good way of getting us to raise the most, because we are all competitive and we want to beat each other by raising the most cans,” Stemper said.
Those shifts often took place in fourto six-hour increments between a pair of two-hour practices during the summer, which proved contagious throughout the team according to junior Allison Lucyshyn.
“To see everyone be a part of this team and have so much commitment is so amazing to see, because you don’t see it in any other sport,” Lucyshyn said.
The team also participated in MakeA-Wish Wisconsin’s Walk For Wishes this month, raising more than $12,300. Whether it be through community outreach or support of a senior scholarship fund through two brat frys, Ahnen has been most impressed by the seniors taking responsibility for their impact out of the pool.
“I did nothing, the seniors just took it over. They organized their fellow teammates. They were in Pick ‘n Save lobbies collecting cans and money. It’s just very neat,” Ahnen said.
Their impact has been felt not just in the organizations supported, but in the bonds the swimmers have developed along the way.
“Our team, we just always are together, we’re in the pool, we’re at food drives, we’re donating, we’re at the Walk For Wishes. We’re just always together, and it’s like a second family almost,” junior Audrey Worgull said.
While the bar was set high by the 2022 senior class, the class of 2023 and 2024 are rising to meet it, sophomore Haley Johnson added.
“The seniors last year taught us since I was a freshman what it means to be a great leader, and it’s so exciting to see the seniors this year and juniors too stepping into that spot,” she said.
When asked why a team with so much championship pedigree to live up to takes the time to give back as well, Ahnen’s answer was simple: “Because it creates the kind of culture you want that creates champions.”
Champions not just in the pool, but champions of servant leadership that leave a legacy that shines brighter than state gold.
“Having been (state champions), it lasts for 20 minutes, but what is history going to say about my team? For the Hartland community, it’s feeding a lot of people,” Ahnen said. “My daughter was a Wish kid. They granted two wishes; that changes a family’s life. You win a state title, it changes you and your parents are very proud, but what they’re doing is changing the lives of people and serving others.”
“Last year we had probably the most intense team bonding ever, and I think it helped us so well, especially in getting that state title,” Stemper said. “This year I’m really hoping to carry that on. I’ve been working at that with everything.”