“Because the Haines Dolphins Swim Team is so small often Lucia would travel without a coach at all,” S. Chapell said. “And GSC would just wrap their arms around her and take her in. It was the same with Pacific, too. For these girls coming to Juneau in a lot of ways was like coming home, a lot of their swim family was already here…It was a lot simpler than we imagined it being.”
Ricke moved to Juneau in eighth grade and L. Chapell moved to Juneau in the summer before her junior year, both jumping immediately into the waters of the GSC and Crimson Bears.
“Juneau just had a lot more opportunities than Haines did,” Kirsten Amann said. “And it became clear that it would be a good direction for Pacific, she had a lot of dreams and goals and determination. We’re so excited about the signing…It’s a big day.”
The two hold multiple records in Haines, have bolstered the GSC, were country wise email marketing list part of the JDHS girls state championship team last year and runner-up finish this season, and were Southeast Region V champions.
“They have been great additions to the team,” GSC coach Scott Griffith said. “Straight in from Haines they were already good swimmers. It was great to have them come in. They meshed right in with our club. They were both great workers and positive girls and great teammates. I’m proud of them and excited for them to keep swimming…Both of them are a coach’s dream. They are dedicated, they work hard, they are always positive, they do everything you say, they eat well…You wish you had a team full of girls like Pacific and Lucia.”
The swimmers recognized the enormity of the day and their friendship
“It is pretty special that we got to be on the same team together again now,” L. Chapell said. “We grew up swimming in Haines and that was really fun. And then we were apart for a couple years when Pacific moved and now I feel like these past couple years it has just been a really fun experience to get to, I don’t know, revisit, being teammates.”
“Since I moved to Juneau a few years before Lucia did and it was ricke will swim for the bates college bobcats over COVID…we grew apart a little bit,” Ricke said. “But since we’ve been back it has been wonderful to get to be friends and teammates together. And this signing is just such a, like, fun full-circle moment from when we were, like, little 5-year-olds and learned to swim together clean email to now going off to college. When we were younger it was such a far off thing, I mean we were a lot younger, but it is definitely exciting now.”
Said Chapell, “Yeah we have been in the past little bit discussing our plans together and comparing notes and that has been exciting. But I don’t think we really planned on getting to sign together. It is pretty cool.”