El Paisano

Issue date: 5/15/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Shaylah Leisenring/El Paisano Denise Castillo is a star swimmer and student prove you can be both athletic and smart and a girl.

What does it take to play a sport and go to school at the same time? It takes a lot of heart and inspiration, something which swimmer Denise Castillo shows every time she hits the pool.

Castillo is a swimmer here for Rio Hondo's women's swim team and water polo team. But before coming to Rio she went to South El Monte High School, a school that does not have a swim team or a water polo team. In fact, Castillo played volleyball in high school instead. She came to Rio for the nursing program but found another offer here, a swim and polo team.

She joined the swim team when she met Coach Mike Hinze in the Fitness Center one random day she explained. As she was talking with Coach Hinze she said she mentioned that she swam for the city of El Monte, and his immediately opened wide, then suggested that she join the swim team here at Rio Hondo, an intriguing offer she agreed. Her love for swimming and Coach Hinze's inspiration drew her to join the team. She said, "I could be in their (the pool) all day and not complain."

She not only enjoys being on the team because of her swimming ability but because she also enjoys the company of the other members of the swim team who she has become close with and says that some of them get together and hang out outside of practice and meets. Not only does she enjoy the bonding with the other team members but the opportunity to stay active.

Even though she has a lot of fun on the swim team she takes the sport seriously trying to beat her own personal records. Her personal bests right now are far better than they were before she joined thanks to Coach Hinze. She says, "I'm not comfortable with my times now, but I'm happy that I was able to beat my times from what I had before." Even though this was one of her goals for the swim team, she has other goals academically, such as getting into the well known nursing program here at Rio Hondo.

She, just as every other student here at Rio, has a life outside of the school and enjoys spending time with her family and friends from the swim team most.

With the semester almost over, she is saddened to not be able to swim on the team next year, as this is her last year of eligibility, but she is looking forward to her future career in nursing and will be striving for nursing degree this coming semester here at Rio Hondo.

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