Bo Jackson could have told Cassidy Scott how strenuous her rehab process would be.
Not only would Bo know, he’d approve of how she fought the time-consuming uphill battle to bounce back from a worrisome hip injury, then just this past week declared her intent to continue her rescued swimming career at the NCAA Division II level.
Wednesday afternoon, Scott’s resilience was rewarded as she, with friends, family, Bayfield High School personnel, plus her Durango Swim Club coach, announced she will next study at and compete for McKendree University.
“Maybe a month and a half, two months ago, I flew out there,” said Scott, a BHS senior. “The coach picked me up, I hung out with the team for two days and got to swim with them and learn what they do—it was mainly a ‘team’ decision.”
Scott visited a lot of schools like Western Colorado and Sioux Falls, but she loved the warm feeling of McKendree’s team, and the pool reminds her of the one she swims in now.
“When I first started coaching her she was just getting off of, like, a really bad hip injury,” DSC head coach Haley Benjamin said. “What she could do in the water was pretty limited ... So just watching her navigate and deal with the mental side of not being able to fully throw yourself into what you love, and being really patient with herself…. her mental game’s definitely had the biggest improvement.”
Located in Lebanon, Illinois, roughly 25 minutes east of central St. Louis, Missouri, McKendree is not only well-established within the Great Lakes Valley Conference’s swim/dive circuit but in fact the Land of Lincoln’s oldest institution of higher learning.
After serious soul-searching while out of action and wondering if it was worth continuing in the sport, Scott’s expressed academic interest in grief counseling and sports psychology.
“In a sport like swimming it’s really easy to get in your head about things,” said Benjamin, a 2018 Animas High graduate who swam collegiately at the University of Houston and later Boise State University. “You’re swimming six days a week, eleven months out of the year, so if you’re not in it…it sucks. But one of her greatest strengths is that she can show up when it’s hard.”
Benjamin has been proud to see Scott’s work result in her competing in the breaststroke again after her injury.
Most confident in her butterfly stroke at either 100 or 200 yards, and improving in the 100 and 200 freestyle, Scott will be joining a McKendree women’s swim & dive program which, overseen by 2025 GLVC Coach of the Year Jimmy Tierney, placed fifth at the Feb. 10-14 GLVC Championships in Evansville, Ind.
“The beginning of the year was great, but the middle was hard and…I’m hoping I do good,” Scott said. “I’ve started to drop times, and the club team, I think, is great; we’ve gone through a lot of development, different coaches, and I think we’re at a very steady point now.”
