Balancing The Police Beat And Masters Swimming, Che'Rel Haywood, EP 304

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I am doing an on-deck interview at the Nova Aquatic Center at Gayton Road. Nova actually in Richmond has two giant pools, one a Regency, and it's an on-deck after practice interview. I'm here with one of my training partners for Masters, and I'm just gonna start with the regular three. Um give us your name, your age, we know your team, and your occupation.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

My name is Sherelle Heward. I'm 26 years old, and I'm a police officer for Chesterfield County.

Choosing Policing Over Teaching

SPEAKER_00 0:33

So that is one of the cool reasons I wanted to talk to you, Sherelle, because um you are a police officer. So how did you get into doing that? And um tell us a little bit about that.

Night Shift Life And Hall Street

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Okay, so originally I went to school for childhood education. Um I started off wanting to teach in the classroom. Once I got to Chesterfield, I realized I wanted to be outside of the classroom. I saw an opening for Chesterfield County Police, and I was like, you know what? I think that's a uh way to get out, meet new people, talk to them, and help out. So I went for it uh a little bit over a year ago, and I graduated the academy this past May, and it has been fun ever since. So are you loving it and what what is your like day-to-day like? My day-to-day for right now, I am on night shift, so I work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. It is a little bit exhausting, but night shift is you meet a whole different set of people. The kids are inside, unlike what I've been used to in the classroom, so I don't get to interact with kids as much, but it is packed, it is very packed. I work on Hall Street right now, so it's a lot of car accidents, but you know, I get to still interact with people a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

So we just got out of a practice at which started at 6 a.m. Do you um go to those practices like right after you get off a shift, or how how does your training schedule fit into getting doing night shift?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

So that's the thing. My training schedule, I am still getting into figuring out the right schedule for me this past Monday. I did get off of work at 6 o'clock, made it home at 6 10, and came to practice by 6 40 because we end at 7 30, so I still got a good few minutes in. It was very tiring, but I'm trying to train my mind to be strong just because I have a long history of swimming. I've been swimming since I was nine years old, so I'm just trying to figure out what works best. But my the idea is if I don't swim, I have to go to the gym. That's just what I say.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, so um, let's get into that a little bit. Your swimming history. So, where did you get into swimming and how did you end up here at Nova Masters?

College Team Culture At Hunter

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Well, I'm from Trinidad and Tobago, so I grew up in the Caribbean. Um, the school I went to we had an activity day which involved a bunch of activities. I wanted to do gymnastics, but I knew everything they were teaching in that class, so I decided to swim. And I've stuck with swimming ever since. Um, I swam competitively for Trinidad and Tobago. I made my first national team when I was 11 years old, I believe. And then after that, I swam a little bit through high school, and then I took a break. And once I went to college, I realized I wanted to swim. I went to Hunter College, it's in New York, so it's a very fun, exciting school. If you're interested in swimming, definitely check out Hunter College. And once I was done with college, I realized I still wanted to find a way to keep in shape, and I found Masters swimming. I found Nova, and then I found Mark, who is an exciting coach, and I I just never left.

Best Vs Favorite Events

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, Mark Cutz is who you're referring to, which we've we've interviewed Mark Cutz, one of the best interviews I've done as um with the coach, and he is just amazing. In fact, today we did what nine 100s off the blocks, three sets of three with the rest in between, but not in uh uh it was it was tough. So Mark is uh my favorite saying of Mark's is are you gonna be a chump or a champ today? So he's funny. So okay, what is your um you know your best and favorite event? Maybe they're not the same.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

My best event would probably be 100 fly. Although I I hate 100 fly very deeply. My favorite event would have to be anything breaststroke. 50 brushstroke, 100 breaststroke, 200 brushstroke. I just love brushstroke. With fly, I am good at it, but the pain sometimes is just not worth it. I will say that.

Sprint Mindset And Preferred Sets

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, I I I can't even relate because I don't do fly. Alright, so um you we we've learned a little bit about your training regimen and especially the new adjustment with your new job. And um what what would be one of your favorite sets that you like to do when you're kind of getting in shape to do something uh special?

Olympian Heroes: Phelps And Bovel

SPEAKER_01 5:12

I don't particularly have a favorite set. I just like anything that's under 200. With Mark, you never know. Some days I show like today we we did those hundreds. I was very happy with that. I will push myself to 150, but I am a sprinter at heart. If I could just do 25s, I will. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So um what would be um your favorite Olympian, dead or alive, they don't have to be, that you if you had um the opportunity to have lunch and talk with them, it could be historic Olympians, we're talking a swimmer um or a current Olympian. Only swimmers.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Only swimmers. Okay, this is this is a tough one. I I well I feel like the answer to go with would be Michael Phelps. Just because, you know, he's he's amazing. He's amazing, yeah. Um, but you know, we have we have our heroes that we look up to in Trinidad, George Bovel being one of them, so it would be interesting to just sit and talk to him as I'm older now, because because he's a hero, I have met him a couple times already.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

So that's really cool. So did you swim at the Olympics for Trinidad and Tobago? No, I I did not. No. You were on the national team. What was your biggest um what was your favorite accomplishment that you ever had in swimming?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

In swimming, I I think I'll have to say swimming in college was um one of my biggest accomplishments, just because in the Caribbean swimming is kind of an individual sport in general, but swimming for college, you become a team because you want to win championships as a team. So that was very new, and it made me become a team person. Like I would find my teammates and talk to them before races, and I would be like, This is what you need to do. You know, we have to win. So I I definitely enjoyed the person it made me become, and I cherish that a lot.

Academy Injury And Comeback

SPEAKER_00 7:07

That's that's beautiful. So um I love personally to hear if you have any comeback stories. Like, has there ever been a time where you you know you were really in a bad place and you just had to make a comeback? Could be injury, could be family, could be just anything that um you know you had to make a comeback in your life that you did.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Well, I would have to say um during the police academy last year, I twisted my ankle and injuries, once you get injured, you get recycled. But while I was there, the academy is nine months. I already told myself I would not be doing that again. It was very exhausting. Um, so I twisted my ankle. I had a booth on for like a month, but because I was swimming and I was in shape, I was able to like push through even though I was still in pain. I would just suck it up and I was able to do all the workouts. I mean it's not best because I still I still feel pain from that now, but I think it was definitely worth it. I wouldn't change it for a thing.

Invitation To Try Nova Masters

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, I always say that you know, the better shape we're in going into an injury or an illness, the better you can recover. I I think that's like key. So that was that's that's great that you were able to do that. Um so last question is there anything that I haven't asked you that you would like to share with the master's um swimming community?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Um no, I would just like everyone to come check out Nova. It's so fun. We have a lot of fun, especially Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's always something new, something exciting, and you get to push yourself. So definitely check Nova out.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah, I it is. It's definitely uh it's fun and it's uh painful, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah, but you have too much fun to remember the pain.

On The Job: A Close Call

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with me and good luck in your new career. I oh, oh, I did want to ask you, have you had any cool takedowns or anything where you've had to use your your physical strength? Because you, you know, when I see you in the water, you're strong, you know, you're very fit. That was something that I wanted to ask you. Like, have you ever had to like flex?

SPEAKER_01 9:14

I have the closest I've gotten, I had to take someone out of a car who fell asleep and they were driving off. But once I grabbed hold of them, they relaxed. So definitely not a takedown, but I did have to pull their door open and yell a bit and then calm down the situation. But that was it.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Okay, well, I'm sure you're prepared to do all of it, but I just we I mean you're brand new. I just didn't know if in the first six months if you get anything fun like that. Alright, well, thanks again. I really appreciate it, and I'll see you at practice on Friday.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yes, of course. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Are you coming straight out of practice? Uh if I