That was one
of the trademarks of motivation for Maureen “Mo’’ Rankin as she served as head
coach of the Xavier Prep swimming and diving team.
Rankin
passed away early Monday (Sept. 25) after battling cancer, but her swimmers
could feel her power when
they competed in a meet against Phoenix Pinnacle at Brophy on Thursday (Sept.
28), for the first time with her not pacing up and down the edge of the pool.
Rankin’s
four senior captains – Katie McCoy, Thea Cartier, Mary Roediger and Kate
Hubbard -- have bonded together to an even greater degree and have tried to
pass on that strength to the younger girls. One of the freshman swimmers is
Rankin’s 14-year-old daughter, Mia.
Assistant coach
Jenny James will assume a lot of Rankin’s duties, but James will be helped by
Rankin’s husband, Mark, who has coached at various levels, including Masters
and younger. The Rankins were swimmers at the University of Arizona, where Mo
was a nine-time All-American, and continued to swim at Masters events. Mark was
on hand for Thursday’s meet.
Mo was
honored with a moment of silence before the races began, as well as a prayer.
Asked how
the girls were holding up, James said, “This community at Xavier is like no
other. The support we have received from Xavier and Brophy has been very
beneficial to our girls.
“It is very
tough right now to lose someone like that, a person so incredible, a role model
as well as a coach, a wife and a mother. I think the girls feel like she would
want them to keep going, to work hard. So we are going to do that and win state
for her. It’s about keeping the team together as a family.’’
There was
some initial discussion about not swimming against Pinnacle or in the Phoenix
Country Day School Invitational, but that talk lasted only a few seconds. The
invitational is in the morning on Saturday (8 a.m.) and the girls should have
plenty of time to prepare for Rankin’s funeral mass at 3 p.m. at St. Francis
Xavier Church on Central Avenue, not far from the Brophy pool.
McCoy said
Rankin was her club coach when she was 10 and Roediger swam for her for about
five years. They knew her well and were excited when Rankin joined the Gators
for her first season in the fall of 2016.
“What
happened to her was heartbreaking, but we can’t change that. We just have to
swim with it, keep going. I think that’s what she would have wanted,’’ said
McCoy, who as a junior was the state champion in 200-yard individual medley and
the 100-yard backstroke.
“She made
everyone want to step up and improve themselves, so it’s important that we come
together,’’ said Roediger, who swims the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard
breaststroke and the anchor leg on a few of the relay teams.
Said
Hubbard, who swims in the same events as McCoy, said the swimmers knew Mo was
not feeling good, “but she would not allow us to see any weakness.’’
McCoy said
when things got so bad, Mo stopped coming to practice “and that’s when we knew
it was pretty bad. She didn’t want us to see her that way. She wanted us to
remember her like she always was, full of energy.’’
Cartier,
whose specialties are the 50- and 100-yard freestyles, said the team “believes
we can carry through all the way. She brought a lot of passion to us.’’
That passion
was exemplified when Roediger was a club swimmer. Mo had given birth to a
son, Luke (now 11), “and she just brought her playpen with her to the pool and
put him in there so he could see everything that was going on. She just wanted
to be there, teaching her swimmers.’’
All four of
the seniors were in agreement when the power of Mo’s voice was mentioned.
“There
wasn’t much doubt when you heard that voice during a race,’’ Hubbard said.
“Even if there were thousands of people (yelling), you would be able to pick it
out.’’
Said McCoy:
“Yeah, she could be kind of loud when we were in a room. It was like you wanted
to say, “You’re using your outside voice,’ but I don’t think she even had an
inside voice.’’
Cartier will
always remember the words of encouragement given to her by the coach when she
was having shoulder problems at the time of the state meet a year ago.
“She gave me
the best pep talk I have ever had,’’ Cartier said. “I made it to the finals (50
free). It was great.
“She was
always like a second mother to me.’’
The rest of the
Gators probably could say the same thing. Mo Rankin had that kind of impact.
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