Returning home with the Co-Swimmer of the year award given to Atiya Yawana and Kyle Barrett, Long Beach City College’s women’s swim team dominated at the 2022 South Coast Conference swim championships.
Not only did these two athletes receive conference awards, but they helped end a drought in LBCC’s women’s team by winning their first SCC Championship title in the past 16 years.
Both Yuwana and Barrett are sophomore students at LBCC but are first-year swimmers with this team. Throughout their high school years, both participated in swimming activities.
Barrett started swimming at a young age, but the prospect of her being a swimmer began at one of her earliest doctor’s appointments.
“It’s actually funny, my parents always say that at one of my first doctor’s appointments the doctor was like ‘Oh she’s going to be a swimmer, she’s tall and is just going to be a swimmer,’ ” Barret said.
Barret prefers water polo over swimming, she admits that at a young age she became bored with swimming, took on water polo, and has been in love with the sport ever since.
Being a student-athlete comes with a great deal of responsibility, Yuwana and Barrett shared how it can become overwhelming at times and how they pull through those situations.
“I get overwhelmed pretty easily, but kind of seeing an end to it and seeing your end goal. Working more towards finishing that instead of looking at everything you have to do now,” Yuwana said.
“My teammates are mainly the only thing keeping me going because if it wasn’t for liking being here, then I wouldn’t be here,” Barret said.
Both girls also credit the LBCC coaching for helping them reach the spot they are in right now.
“They definitely got me back into loving the sport, training for the team instead of focusing more on yourself and your own times,” Yuwana said.
Barrett struggles with pre-race jitters but reveals that her coach Bradley Adamson helps ease these nerves as he encourages her to breathe deep and visualize every moment of her race.
Whether it’s walking up to the block, standing on it, or ending the race, Adamson encourages his athletes to run through the entire event in their minds to picture how they want to do in their race.
Yuwana competes as a back-stroker and in the individual medley, with her favorite event being the 100 backstroke as it is similar to a sprint.
Throughout Yuwana’s swim career she is most proud of where she is right now as she will head into state championships in second place.
“The coaching and the team at LBCC have been nothing but amazing, and I definitely could not have asked for anything more,” Barret said.