Remember the Tritons: Traverse City co-op swim & dive team looks to reach new heights under new coach

Aug. 23—TRAVERSE CITY — Energy, confidence, smiles and power filled the pool at the Central YMCA. As did close to two dozen swimmers.

The Traverse City Tritons — the area's co-op swim and dive team — come into the 2022 season with its largest roster in years, and they do so under the tutelage and guidance of a new coach with a stellar pedigree who is already familiar with some of those on the team.

Megan Petroelje, the 28-year-old out of the Grand Rapids area who replaced Jason Moore as the Tritons' head coach, already has the trust of many of the 24 swimmers that will compete this season. Petroelje, who moved to Traverse City in May 2020 during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, has worked with the local club swimming team — the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA Breakers — and coach Kathy Coffin-Sheard.

Now, she takes over the high school team with aspirations of sending more than just one swimmer to the state finals.

"It was an easy connection," Petroelje said. "They were like, 'Hey, we need a coach,' and I loved girls high school swimming and it's always been so much fun. I loved swimming in high school and I loved coaching high school. That's what brought me here."

Petroelje swam in high school at Grand Rapids Christian and collegiately at Calvin College. When she graduated, she spent two years as the varsity girls swimming head coach at her high school alma mater and one year as an assistant at Calvin.

That experience as both a swimmer and as a coach has the athletes in the water excited about the possibilities for 2022.

"It's definitely really comforting knowing Megan is experienced and knows what she's doing," said Avery Bills, who qualified for the state finals last season. "It's not like we're going from Jason to a coach that's iffy about some things. Megan has done it all. She swam in college. She knows what she's doing."

That is vital for a talented swimmer such as Bills.

Bills has gone through the recruiting process and will definitely swim in college, but she has not yet decided where. The senior has spoken with representatives from the University of Alabama and small schools in Michigan such as Calvin and Hope College as well as Butler University in Indianapolis.

"It's more of the validation," Bills said of what makes swimming special. "There's obviously the other stuff, the cheugy stuff, like making friends and having people always there; but for me, it's validating to know I always have the pool right there. There's nothing to really stop that."

Teammate Kira Adams expects the Tritons to be "really, really good" this year.

"With Megan, she's such a good coach and she's really going to know how to bring the whole team together with all the different levels," Adams said. "She's going to bring something really special to the team and make sure that everyone fits in but also performs really well."

Camryn Crosby, who has worked under Petroelje with the Breakers, said having a female coach after years of having a male coach will be different, and she has already noticed the change in the atmosphere.

"Not that Jason was a bad coach. He was an amazing coach, but having all girls is just a different vibe, and I'm really excited about it," Crosby said. "I really like Megan, and I think all of the other girls do, too. She's going to bring something new and special to the team."

Petroelje said her life was shaped and impacted in a very positive way thanks to swimming. She hopes to offer those same experiences and lessons to the swimmers she'll oversee this season.

She puts great value in the connections she makes with the athletes and the team effort it takes to succeed. That camaraderie is "really powerful" and she sees coaching as a valuable opportunity to help her swimmers grow as athletes and people.

"When you coach high school, you get anyone from someone who's never swam before at the first day at practice to someone who's looking to swim in college — and then everything in between," she said. "It's special to see how people can grow from their first day of practice as a freshman through their senior year."

Coaching all of those different skill levels is no easy task.

"That's one thing people don't think about. They say, 'Just coach the girls.' But you throw one set at the girls and they can handle it just fine, but another set might be more difficult," Petroelje said. "It's about understanding that everyone's goals are different and trying to cater a practice to those goals."

Some of the Tritons have aspirations of making it to the state finals. Others want to swim at a meet. Some just want to make it to the end of practice that day.

"It all comes down to figuring out how these girls are motivated, what their goal is, and how they want to get there," Petroelje said.

The Tritons are coming off of a Coastal Conference championship, and Petroelje would like to defend that title and repeat as champs. She would also like to have at least one and maybe two relay teams make it to the state finals after only Bills qualified as an individual last season.

Petroelje knows Division 1 swimming and diving is different than the Division 3 level she coached at before, but she is embracing that challenge and embracing the challenge of being a new coach.

"I think a lot of them are unsure, which is totally fine," Petroelje said of her swimmers. "I remember in high school when we switched coaches a couple of times, and that's really a tough transition to go through."

Petroelje is working with the swimmers one on one and hoping to accomplish at least 90 percent of the goals they put forth by the end of the season. But she also knows that those goals must go toward the collective goal of the team to be as successful as possible.

"I'm excited to see where the season goes," Petroelje said.

So are the swimmers.

"Everybody loves this team. It kind of feels like a family," Crosby said. "For this team, it's like a sisterhood. If you have a bad day at school, you can come to practice and escape and know your teammates are there to help you."

The Tritons opened their season Saturday at Ludington and head to East Kentwood on Tuesday.