170th Article at the Independent

Meet Ellie Anselment: Your new MHS swim and dive assistant coach

CHRIS DRUMMOND

Sports Writer

MARSHALL — Meet Monticello native Ellie Anselment, who is a senior college student attending Southwest Minnesota State University and New assistant coach for the Marshall High School Swim and Dive team. When she’s not in classes, she is one of the cheerleaders for the school and also belongs to the MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena) League of Legends eSports team. She is also majoring in Computer Science and recently of this month accepted a assistant coach position for the Marshall High School Tigers girls Swim and Dive team. She has aspirations of being a head coach in a sport she passionately loves.

Anselment grew up playing sports but found her passion in swimming and was doing so since the age of eight year-round. Anselment wanted to be a collegiate swimmer and through camps, a coach made an impression on her in Marty Wahle. Wahle is now the SMSU coach and has been since 2018.

Anselment would choose SMSU to attend and swim for the team for two years. Then Anselment would step down from the team stating that her passion had change and it was getting to be too much. “It is really hard to devote 20 hours a week to something that you just don’t love anymore,” Anselment said. “I have been swimming for so long and giving so many hours into it and I just needed to step away.”

Anselment junior year started off rough because her grades began to slip. She knew that she needed to find another activity to keep her focus and discipline, which led to her decision to join the cheerleading team. Although Anselment was excited to be cheerleading, but she couldn’t deny her passion for swimming and wanted to find a way back into the sport.

Wahle would spot Anselment in the hallways of the university and stated to her in a brief conversation that if she was looking for work, Marshall High School is looking for an assistant swim coach. Anselment would apply for the position and met with the current swim head coach Nikki Axe Bell. Bell, will be stepping down from coaching after this year. She would have to go through two interviews and would be selected for the job. Bell spoke on why Anselment was the right selection for the job.

“Ellie brings a wealth of experience to the assistant coaching job at MHS,” Bell added As a high school team manager, she helped with gear, helped with taking splits, and ran the team manager software. Her experience as a high school and college swimmer was also a valuable asset that made her an ideal candidate for the assistant coaching job. Ellie brings thoughtful insight and energy to the team. She shares my commitment to supporting the development of healthy student-athletes.”

Anselment elated for the opportunity, was nervous upon meeting the team but wanted to give a good first impression.

“I was really scared,” Anselment said. “Not too long ago I was in high school and I know sometimes high school girls can be a little mean. However, as soon as I met them, I found out they’re awesome and all really sweet people. Their is something so different about being the assistant coach than the head coach, because you can be more friend than coach.”

The Tigers swim team has three home meets coming up this season all in the month of October (13th, 18th and 28th) and Anselment talks about the excitement of swimming at home.

“I’m really excited because it is so hard for the parents to come to the away meets,” Anselment added. “The really awesome thing about Marshall home meets is that not only the families come, but the kids in the Southwest Swim Club come and some of the SMSU swimmers come too.”

Anselment added that she loves the community of Marshall coming together to support athletes in sports and residents in the community calling Marshall a special place to be. She loves the development of the Marshall Tigers swim program and wants to continue coaching eventually being the next head coach in line after graduation from SMSU next May.