With hard work and dedication comes great rewards and Steinbrenner high school swimmer, Bella Answeeney is seeing her hard work pay off just in time for her to head off to college.
Her schedule is nothing short of hectic.
“Throughout the whole week, I go to school for like half a day, and then I then go to practice from like 2:30 to six,” Answeeney told Bay News 9's Katya Guillaume.
Before spending her early evenings in the water, her schoolwork comes first.
“Right now I’m studying Marine Science,” she said, a major fitted for someone who loves being in the water.
She continued, “I love just learning about different types of animals and just things about the ocean because they just fascinate me so much. I’m trying to find information on here that can like help me more into learning more about like the coral reefs.”
She spent her sophomore and junior focusing on the heavy course loads, and this year, “I've just decided, like don't take any big courses right now," she said." Um, I kind of want to like have like a senior year and like, don't worry about like academics and studying," and put her focus on the sport she loves.
“When I was younger," she said, "I’ve always been competitive. So like, this year, I was like, I know I work hard. I know I like like I want to win. So I just did whatever I can to touch the wall first and win.”
This sport wasn’t always her first choice, it’s just something she grew into.
“My sister started swimming while I was doing gymnastics, and I kind of like followed her steps into that and then I started swimming. And then I didn't really like swimming at the time but then as soon as I started to get older and so did like training and starting to like get faster and like winning more I kind of enjoyed it.”
With her coaches Kristyn Fada and Kim Harkness by her side, the opportunity to excel in this sport grew.
Fada said, “She’s an extremely hard worker. She's a hard-working classroom and she's dedicated most of her life and she was about seven to the sport of swimming. Just not much I need to do to motivate her. She's very self-motivated.”
Hard work and dedication led to her first state title in the 100 fly.
Fada continued, “I know the first day I saw her practice this year, she knew exactly what she wanted and she wanted to win a state title and she set her mind to it.”
Answeeney added, “I'm like in love with the sport and I legit like can't do a day where I miss a swim practice like I have to do something in the water, it feels like it like is a part of me.”
She's at the peak of her career, taking the experiences she’s gained here at Steinbrenner and taking it with her to North Carolina State University where she’ll swim and hopefully study marine biology.
Answeeney also led her team to titles in the 200 free and the 400 free relay to add to her record year.