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Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Sophie Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Sophie Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Alex Bader
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Anne Vormohr
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Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Sophie Bader
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Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
Clik here to view.
Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Sophie Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Sophie Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
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Sophie Bader laughs with Alex Bader and their other lane partner during a break in drills Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
MUNCIE — For the Bader sisters, there’s life in the pool and there’s life everywhere else.
“At home it’s a little different and more laid back because we don’t have anything to accomplish,” said Alex Bader, a sophomore on Jay County’s swim team.
Sophie Bader is a Jay County senior committed to Ball State when swimming in the pool and Alex’s big sister everywhere else. At home they joke around like any sisters would. In the pool they push each other like only sisters could — because there’s something to accomplish.
The pair swam together at state last year and helped Jay County to its first sectional championship in the program’s 40-year history. Their cousin, Anne Vormohr, is probably the best swimmer on the team and she’s committed to Ball State too.
This family can swim. Sophie and Alex’s mom, Missy Bader, swam at Jay County and held records that her kids have since broken. There’s something in their blood — or maybe in the water — that just yields talented swimmers.
Or maybe it’s something else.
“Hard work,” Missy said without hesitation when asked the family’s secret. “They do what’s asked of them at practice. There’s a few select swimmers that will do it, and that get it.”
Missy coaches her daughter’s’ club group for Team USA, which allows her to spend a whole lot of time with her family, doing what she loves. She knows what’s necessary for each swimmer, she knows what makes her daughters tick. She knows the importance of time management in the pool and everywhere else.
During practices, there is no down time. At home, Alex and Sophie get their homework done, they work when school is out in the summer and they have a social life. That’s been a part of the game for all four of Missy’s daughters (all of whom started swimming at four years old).
“I don’t think we swim enough that they have come to a point of a burn out yet,” she said. “I hope we’ve got a good 12 years left of swimming.”
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Sophie Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.
Sophie took college visits all over the place because she wanted a change of scenery. But sure enough, she fell in love with Ball State’s coaches and its nursing program, plus she’ll still be swimming alongside Vormohr — who she calls her “fourth sister.”
“Next year I don’t know how (Alex is) going to do on her own, with me at Ball State,” Sophie said. “I’m extremely grateful for these last 12 years I’ve been able to swim with her. She’s the biggest dork I know.”
Alex isn’t sure what to think either.
“I’m not really sure how that’s going to be,” she said. “I’ve never been without her. When I’m a senior, I’ll have Eliza to come up and push me. I have a lot of family here to help me out.”
But there are still things to accomplish this year. Sophie hopes to improve a pair of top-17 finishes in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard fly in last year’s state tournament. Her events have shuffled throughout high school, but she plans to be focused on her best races this season.
She wants to win sectionals again. In 40 years the rural school had never seen its girls swimming team win a sectional championship. But Sophie and Alex and their cousin, Vormohr, got it done last season.
The Patriots took first place in more than half of the events in sectional competition before moving on to state, where they finished 15th of 41 schools. Sophie said she hates losing, but there’s one exception.
“As long as I can remember, (Alex) has always been next to my lane pushing me,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to lose to anyone but her.”
Contact Ball State sports reporter Dakota Crawford at dcrawford@muncie.gannett.com and follow @DakotaCrawford_.
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Alex Bader swims laps during practice Monday afternoon at Jay County High School.