EAST LANSING, Mich. — One of the hardest things that a high schooler can go through is transferring schools. Ava Harmon had to make that decision after her freshman year at Holt High when she decided to part ways with the Rams and transferred to East Lansing.
She made memories and formed close relationships with the swim team at Holt, but decided she needed to make a change. She decided to join a team coached by a woman at ELHS. She became known as the “missing puzzle piece” with her new school, and her new-found family.
In just her junior year, and her second season with the Trojans, she placed third in all of her events at the CAAC Blue Championships league meet, and made it to the Michigan Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association meet (MISCA) and Division II State Championship meet.
“I was Ava’s first female coach, and so we’ve talked about that a lot,” said ELHS swim Coach Madelyn Zink. “Just seeing her swimming her freshman year and knowing her a bit in middle school, and kind of just seeing her not even evolve as a swimmer, but just evolve as a person, and like grow into herself, and be more comfortable on the pool deck, and be more comfortable asking questions, and just the comfortability of having another female in the room I think was a big change for her.”…