Little ducklings. That’s how Swim Coach Tom Bullock describes the Simon sisters from their first meeting in 2016. The three girls had shown up at the Creekmore Park pool in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to join the USA Swim team, the Tideriders. Grace, at nine years of age, walked ahead with seven-year-old Abby at her heels. Six-year-old Mia lagged behind, but just barely.
“They were very shy, very new… They kept to themselves,” Coach Bullock says. “None of them said a word. They’d come in like little ducks in a row.”
The Simon sisters’ love of water had started years before. Their grandmother had a pool, and they’d been splashing around in it since they were in diapers. Later, when their homeschooling mom, Holly, was looking for extracurricular activities, she discovered the Fort Smith Tideriders Swim team. By then, the family had been in Fort Smith for two years. The girls’ dad, Tyson, serves as the Multi-Area Director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Holly had been on her middle school swim team in Kansas, and the coach thought she was a natural. It was likely she’d passed the trait to her children. Although, Holly, by her own omission, hadn’t stuck with it. Grace, Abby, and Mia persisted, perhaps because each girl kept the other two on their toes. Although, it could have been the shiny ribbons. “We’d have these meets with just the Tideriders,” Grace says, “and you’d swim your fifty or twenty-five, and whoever won got a ribbon.” Abby adds, “Yeah, it was all about the ribbons. It sparked something in us.”
Grace continues. “We were in the lower Bronze group, and we were beating the kids in the Gold, which was the highest level.” Not long ago, a boy who’d been their teammate returned to visit. “He came up to the three of us—he was introducing us—and he said, ‘These girls were wicked fast.'”
The girls’ day often begins at 4:30 am to get swim time before school. Once in a while, Holly suggests her daughters a day off. “I’m a bad influence,” she jokes. But her determined daughters aren’t interested.
First, Grace, whose alarm is always set, wakes Abby, who gets up quickly, and then Grace wakes Mia, whose enthusiasm isn’t quite as unwavering. But once they’re at the pool, it’s game-on. They often return home, having swum three miles before their school day begins.
Grace prefers freestyle. Abby, the backstroke, and Mia, the breaststroke. “We are so competitive,” Grace says, recalling a recent race where Mia placed second, Abby placed third, and Grace placed fourth.
Coach Bullock has had years to figure them out. “All three are motivated differently. Grace is the typical firstborn; she wants to do things right and wants feedback. Abigail (Abby), who’s been able to watch her older sister, doesn’t need as much direction.” The coach laughs. “And then there’s Mia, the wildcard of the three. Having the examples of both sisters, she’s had the options of A, Grace. B, Abigail, or just doing what Mia wants.
“They’ve improved every year in a sport where that doesn’t always happen. They’ve climbed the ranks. As young kids, I would say Abby was the first to qualify for championship meets, state meets, and as a ten and under. I remember watching Abby’s sisters watch her races. I could tell gears were turning in their heads. ‘I want to do that. Oh, I can do that. I’m going to do that,’ to ‘I’m doing that.'”
While the sisters swim year-round with the Tideriders, they’re on the Southside High School Swim team, which Tom Bullock also coaches. Since Grace will graduate in May, the trio is about to be broken. Grace, who’s ranked sixth in the state, has earned a swim scholarship from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri, an NCAA Division II (D2) school. She’ll be part of their inaugural team, helping the women’s swim program grow block by block.
The sisters’ final year swimming together has been an epic one. At the state high school championship, held at the beginning of March, the girls were swimming against the tide. Grace had gotten pneumonia and bronchitis first, and like a row of dominoes, Abby and Mia soon fell. They swam anyway, each placing in their individual events.
Grace placed third in both the 200 and 100 freestyle. Abby came in sixth in the 500 freestyle and eighth in the 100 backstroke. Mia placed seventh in the 50 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke. And this was while the girls were still weak from their illnesses.
“The best part has been watching them grow together,” Coach Bullock says. “Near the end of March, those three, along with Southside senior Jordan Fanning, placed third out of twelve teams at the Arkansas Senior Championship meet. That’s a feat I hadn’t even heard of. Most teams have ten, fifteen, twenty-five girls. We had four, three of them the Simon sisters.”
Coach Bullock says saying goodbye to Grace will be bittersweet. “At least she’ll still be swimming,” he says. He hopes he’s given her a strong enough foundation because that’s what the sport did for him. As the son of Ian Bullock, a swim coach who came to Fort Smith from the University of Iowa, he’s spent most of his life in the water.
“For me, when I was a swimmer, it taught me a lot about myself. Brought me through some hard times. You learn to love swimming so much, and you find that joy is something to be shared. The Simon sisters have helped with swimming lessons, volunteered their time helping younger swimmers. They’ve led by example.
“Swimming gives you identity. Comradery. You suffer with your teammates through hard practices, and you become close. It helps you learn how to get over things. How to do better. And then you realize just how far you’ve come from the beginning. You become the best version of yourself.”
Those three little girls showed up at Creekmore Park to join the Tideriders are nearly grown now, and Grace will soon leave for college, with Abby and Mia not so far behind.
Holly feels the shift, and she’s not quite ready to be an empty nester. These girls are her heart. Her shining stars. If she could rewind the clock and get those years back, she would.
The world is approximately seventy-one percent water. Lakes and rivers. Streams and creeks. Oceans. Seas. Lagoons. Grace, Abby, and Mia may want to see as much of it as possible and dip their toes in vastly different waters.
The thing Holly has to hold on to is this. Daughters and ducklings tend to return, no matter how far they roam. No matter how much the water sparkles against the distant shore. The fair winds will always bring them home.
For more information on the Fort Smith Tideriders, the area’s premiere USA Swim team, visit tideriders.com.
