A stopwatch can measure time, but not effort and certainly not guts.
So while it will tell you Erika Jackson is not exactly the swiftest performer on the Hinsdale South swimming team, it won’t tell you she is nonetheless a star.
The Hornets junior has Down syndrome but shows up for practice every day, swims the seemingly unending laps pretty much like anyone else and competes in junior-varsity meets, all with a smile that rarely leaves her face.
The result may not impress that stopwatch, but it blows away her new teammates.
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“They say you find role models in random places,” junior Dominique Drouin said. “I never expected to find one here, but I can honestly say Erika is one of mine.”
Erika, the daughter of Hinsdale South boys cross-country coach Dave Jackson, is a lifelong gym rat. She has competed in park district and Special Olympics gymnastics as well as on Special Olympics basketball and track teams at Hinsdale South, which provides its 300 special-needs students with outstanding athletic opportunities.
“Erika is willing to try just about anything,” her father said.
She enrolled in South’s Learn to Swim program at age 5 and steadily progressed through its seven levels of proficiency, completing the program last summer. Head swim coach Frank Kuchta, who runs Learn to Swim, then invited her to join his 40-member girls team.
The offer surprised Erika, but she never hesitated in accepting it. Her excitement overflowed partway through her first practice last month when she finally realized Kuchta doesn’t cut swimmers and she had actually made the team.
“She had a big smile on her face and couldn’t wait to tell her mother and brother and sister,” Dave Jackson said.
In practice and in her JV debut against Stagg, Erika has demonstrated a smooth, efficient freestyle stroke, but it’s her work ethic that really stands out.
“This isn’t easy for us, let alone someone who has Down syndrome,” said senior Laura McInerney, whose sister, Kristen, has the same condition and is one of Erika’s friends. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Erika seems to understand that. She is Kuchta’s first Down syndrome swim team member, and Hinsdale South Special Olympics coach Kathy Craig said it’s rare for a student such as her to compete on a regular interscholastic team.
“I feel very proud of myself,” Erika said Wednesday during a poolside interview. “I feel happy. I feel smarter.”
She is outgoing and loves attention, so the biggest payoff of being a Hornet isn’t the competition but not-so-little things such as exchanging high-fives and banter with teammates, who have gone out of their way to help her and make her feel at home.
“I like to meet friends, and they give me a lot of support, a lot of swimming tips,” Erika said. “They say, ‘Good job, Erika.'”
Her teammates in turn have gotten a lesson in perspective by watching Erika put in up to 3,000 yards in practice with little fuss.
“When we’re sitting there complaining, we realize we have nothing to complain about,” said Drouin, who is particularly close with Erika. “It motivates us.”
“It has worked in everyone’s favor,” JV coach Beth Walker said. “I think it’s huge for Erika’s self-esteem and confidence level and huge for the other girls.
“It certainly makes them take things in stride and evaluate their priorities on a daily basis.”
Walker and Kuchta are also heroes in this tale. Working with Erika takes a little extra patience and occasional prodding, especially when they try to get her to stray from her freestyle specialty and work on the butterfly and breaststroke.
“I hate them,” she said firmly.
It’s all worth it for Kuchta, mainly for Erika’s sake but also because she reminds him that in high school sports, success has multiple definitions.
“Too often we get over-focused on winning it all at the state meet or in playoff games,” he said. “You have to keep in perspective that high school sports should be for everyone, for the most part.
“Many programs are cut programs, but for one like ours, we are able to keep kids who want to keep doing this.”
That clearly includes Erika, whose desire has made her a winner.
“I think just her drive to be here alone is amazing,” Drouin said. “The fact she is successful with it makes it that much more impressive, and to do it with a smile on her face makes it that much better.”
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Good job, Erika.
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