Swimming a tradition for Powell family

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Josey Powell is a junior.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Josey Powell has spent a good majority of her life in a swimming pool.

For Powell, a junior who will represent the Central girls swimming team in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke at the Missouri Swimming and Diving Championships today in St. Peters, Missouri, it's only fitting that swimming, a sport that has spanned three generations in the Powell family, has become her passion.

"She was in the pool when she was born. We've got a pool and I mean, we were always at a pool, the lake or a beach," said her mother Dayna Powell, who is Central's coach. "We're just swimming people, so she's been in a pool her whole life."

Swimming became a staple in the Powell family far before either Dayna or Josey were in the picture. It started with Dayna's mother, Jeanette Miles.

Miles had been an avid swimmer growing up, according to Powell, and eventually helped start and coach the Kennett swimming team when it was founded in 1959.

While helping her mom with swimming lessons, Dayna said swimming began to interest her.

"We built a pool when I was 7 in the backyard, and people from three states would come take swimming lessons from my mom at my house. So by 11 or 12, I became her demonstrator. I would demonstrate the strokes while mom was teaching," Dayna said. "Well, then in junior high, I started helping her teach [at Kennett]. In the back of my mind I always thought, 'I'd really like to try swimming,' but none of my friends swam on the Kennett swim team even though Mom was the coach, so I didn't get into it competitively right then."

Dayna Powell decided to pursue swimming in college as a walk-on at Southeast Missouri State University despite never really having competed in competitive races.

"As a senior in high school, my P.E. teacher took us to Jonesboro for this girls sports day. Back then we only had a few sports at Kennett High School. I swam a race there and did pretty good," Dayna said. "And so I came to SEMO the next year and they had a brand new swim coach. I got there and thought, 'Hey, I'm going to try and walk-on.' Being from Kennett, I was discouraged pretty quick. I swam an intramural meet at first and he said, 'Hey I need a butterfly. Are you still interested?' It was probably the toughest thing I've ever done, but I walked on SEMO, swam four years, had the time of my life, made my best college friends, loved it and I decided swimming was kind of what I wanted to do."

After graduating from Southeast with a degree in physical education, Powell returned to Kennett, where she coached the Indians for six seasons.

In 1990, Central added swimming to its list of sports. Powell was the school's first pick to head the newly formed squad. She happily accepted the job and has been there ever since.

"They came to me and said, 'Hey, you're a college swimmer, you're already a school district employee, would you come and coach?' I had so much fun coaching at Kennett, so I took the job," Dayna said. "They ended up adding swimming in 1990 and so I've been the only coach at Cape Central, and I just love it. We've made it to state every year but one, in both boys and girls. We've had five state champions and several all-staters."

With her new career in full swing, Dayna found herself at the swimming pool nearly every day. With two kids also filling the majority of her schedule, getting them involved with swimming allowed her to coach her team and introduce Josey and her sister Jeanette to the sport she loved.

"She always did love it, her and her sister. We'd come to practice here, then we'd go home and swim all afternoon in our pool," Dayna said. "So they definitely grew up in the water. That was something that for my husband and I, it was important that they liked it like we do."

Dayna said Josey started to show that she was a talented swimmer by the time she was 7. She set the conference record in the 200 IM that year, but it was her first race, at age 5, when Dayna knew her daughter really enjoyed swimming.

"That was when I thought, 'Wow she's going to be a really good swimmer.'" Dayna said about Josey. "Actually, in her first race, we laugh at it now, but it was great. I think she was 5 at the time. She dove in right off the block, swam as fast as she could and got a 10 stroke lead. She poked her head up, looked left, looked right saw she was in front and she smiled this really big smile. And then she put her head down and kept swimming. So we thought, 'OK. She likes this.'"

However, Josey said there was a time where she didn't always like swimming. She recalls long days of training and attending meets that made her dread competing.

"I would just come at like 9 o'clock in the morning every day and just swim summer league with my sister. And then we would have to go to meets every Saturday for eight hours a day," Josey said. "I kind of got used to it, I guess, but after awhile I got kind of tired of it."

While her meets in middle school and junior high seemed to drag on, high school swimming changed her outlook on the sport.

"When I started high school I was kind of like, 'Well, I want to be better, so I'll keep training to get to that point.' I really thought high school swimming would change my attitude about it, and it has," Josey said. "It was kind of like I got burnt out on it until I got to high school. I'm not sure why it changed, but I guess I just recognized the opportunities I would have to become a really good swimmer if I kept working and training hard."

Since then, she has a adjusted to putting swimming as a top priority in her life. She's also enjoyed the opportunity of having her mom as a coach for the past four years.

"I kind of like it because she is more relaxed since I'm her daughter and her swimmer. I kind of have always liked that aspect of it," Josey said. "I think it makes it more fun because I know her better than anyone on the team and we know how to have fun more."

Dayna has relished the opportunity to coach her daughter and added that Josey has played more than the role of a top swimmer for the Tigers.

"Just like at conference, I would say, 'Josey, what do you think about this.' So it gave us a chance to talk about swimming away from the pool," Dayna said. "Like, when we try to figure out the best way to line people up or do a relay and what our goals are, she's kind of my sounding board. I'll say, 'What if we did this?' And she'll say, 'Mom, no that's not going to work.' Or, 'Hey that sounds good.' So it's kind of a team effort from both of us from one standing point. She's kind of like an assistant coach for us."

Dayna admitted there are still small things that the mother-daughter duo disagree on, even in the week leading up to state.

"Sometimes we might disagree a little bit on certain things. Even this week for example, I wanted her to do certain things and she felt like maybe that was too much," she said. "So I have to decide how I'm going to convince her that this is what she needs to do, what's best for her. But she doesn't mind letting me know she doesn't think that's really what she needs to be doing sometimes."

One thing the Powells have agreed on is getting to state. Josey had been working to qualify for state in the 200 IM last season, but missed her cut by a slim margin.

"Last year, about two weeks out from conference, she got within half a second of that cut. She made some huge time drops and we thought she might get that cut, and we just got close within a half a second," Dayna said. "So this year, she was determined. She wanted to make that cut, and she did. Then we got a bonus making the breaststroke at conference, which she really wanted to do but wasn't sure how close she could get."

In the City of Roses Invitational at the Central Municipal pool last month, Powell punched her ticket to state with a third-place finish in a qualifying time of 2 minutes, 17 seconds. With the bronze, Powell also became the first Central girls swimmer to qualify for state in three years.

"At the end of last year is when I started. I kind of focused on that throughout the year, knowing that I was close," Josey said. "That kind of started with her. She helps me set goals that I think are realistic. She helps me to get better and really motivates me to go to practice."

Josey said her upcoming race, which will be her last in high school, has been keeping her up at night lately. She's not necessarily nervous; she just wants to be at her best.

"I just think about all of the stuff that I want to do, but I maybe don't do in a race," Josey said. "I'm just like, 'I have to do it now,' because this is the last time I'm going to be able to do it. I'll just have to see how fast I can go. I think about it and kind of go through it in my mind a lot."

Josey is ranked in the top 25 in the 200 IM but hopes to drop her time to make it to the final heat Saturday.

"I would like to come back for finals, and that's top 16," Josey said. "I'm top 24 right now, and top 16 is in 2:15, so that's like two seconds I have to drop. I think I can maybe do it, but that's kind of the goal -- to get back on Saturday one way or another."

The Powell's have worked hard in preparation to get to this point. As Josey gets set to compete in the biggest race of her life, Dayna will be right by her side, cheering her on as she has for the entirety of her career.

"I love the fact that I get to see her swim at all the different venues. She had wanted that cut for so long that she got at City of Roses, but honestly, for us to share her getting those splits and making it to state together is very special," Dayna said. "I tell all my swimmers that I swim every race with them. I'll definitely be swimming this one with her. It will be exciting."