An old whiteboard hangs by the pools at IM West, displaying workouts for the day. The air is warm, filled with the sound of arms slicing through the water.

Their coach? Themselves. 

MSUSC is coached by the same athletes who compete on the team. It is completely student-run and funded, from the workouts planned to the logistics of team road trips, including CCS Nationals.

“We all share that experience of either having a coach that's really tough on you, a little bit scary to talk to,” said supply chain management and music senior Deema El-Mouazzen, MSUSC president. “When we have student coaches, it's a lot more chill. It's a lot more back and forth. There's room for adjustment, for the sets when we swim it. It just makes it a family environment.”

The student leadership has created a culture that reminds swimmers of why they started in the first place: for fun. 

“My whole life it was like ‘I am swimming for somebody else,’” said kinesiology junior Allison Alguire. “I have done all these practices because my mom made me go to swim, or I'm doing all these practices because my coach will be mad at me. But every single day that I'm here, I'm showing up because I'm enjoying the sport again. I'm showing up because I want to do well for my teammates and because we're all going to go have fun at nationals.”

Alguire is one of the four MSUSC coaches who alternate planning workouts for the four practice days of the week. But when she arrived at MSU, she had no intentions of swimming at all. 

Alguire grew up in a competitive swimming family and has watched three of her cousins compete at the DI level. Collegiate swimming was an idea throughout high school, but after her last competition at the state-level, Alguire was ready to hang up her cap and goggles. 

She arrived at MSUSC looking for friends, not the sport itself. Alguire found her friends, a group of people that helped her rediscover her love for swimming.