Friday Features: Impairment doesn’t slow West Florida swimmer
By Maurice Patton
Andrew Hancock thought he had the
West Florida swim team’s roster in place heading into its inaugural season of competition before an additional piece came along.
That piece, in the form of current junior
Peggy de Villiers, may have provided the extra bit of legitimacy to an Argonaut program that has been a force in NCAA Division II from its outset.
“We had the ability to bring into our first-ever team a national champion. She’s done a great job of giving our program an identity of success,” Hancock said of de Villiers.
A sprinter from South Africa, de Villiers qualified for the 2013 Swimming and Diving Championships in four events as a freshman at Drury University as the Missouri team claimed the DII title.
de Villiers has continued that success at UWF, helping the team to a 23
rd-place finish at the 2014 nationals and an 11
th-place finish last month while earning NCAA Division II honorable mention All-American recognition nine times over the two years.
Considering that she doesn’t always get off to the best starts, her consistent performance is especially impressive.
When she was six months old, de Villiers contracted bacterial meningitis and has been hearing impaired since. Hearing aids help offset the loss, but she’s unable to wear them in the pool.
“I like to think it doesn’t affect me. There’s nothing physically or mentally wrong with me,” she said. “The biggest thing is missing the small things like the starter’s gun, small factors like that.
“Sometimes I can actually hear the starter. I just move with (the other swimmers).”
Her approach and adaptability has taken the focus away from any potential problems her lack of hearing may create.
“From our end, Peggy’s very good at making sure she figures out what she needs to figure out,” Hancock said. “After the first couple of months, we figured out an understanding to try to make sure we do that extra check – ‘Peggy, you got this?’ She’s done a good job of making it easier than it could be.
“I knew it would be something different than I was used to working with. That was something that appealed to us about Peggy. We look for people from different backgrounds. Let alone a different country, she’s had a completely different set of experiences. I felt she could have the potential to open the eyes of our athletes to seeing the world from a whole different perspective.”
As a South African youth, de Villiers competed in cricket and field hockey as well as swimming. She has swam internationally with her country’s Deaflympics team since 2007 – winning four medals in the 2009 games and three in 2013 -- and has been a member of the junior national team.
Stateside, she won the 50-yard freestyle at this year’s New South Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Conference Championships and was on UWF’s winning 400-yard freestyle relay team, while finishing second in the 100 free and 100 butterfly. At the Division II championships, she placed 11
th in the 100 free and was on five relays that finished in the top 16.
“I don’t think you can single out just me,” de Villiers said as she discussed her team’s accomplishments. “A lot of it stems from our coach. He has been incredible from the start. There’s been a really positive attitude, a willingness to communicate.”
“At UWF, we’re groomed to be successful at a national level,” Hancock said. “Our administration does a great job of supporting us, but we’re just trying to fit in.
“We want to create a culture of success. We never wanted that first-year mindset. Peggy made it so much easier to make sure that was never an issue.”
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