Amy Honkomp
My journey to PCY Masters is a bit of a full-circle story. About 10–12 years ago—before PCY Masters really became a thing again—I was lifeguarding in the indoor pool when I overheard a couple of coaches talking about whether there was enough interest to restart a Masters program. One of them was Tasos Madonis, a Tigersharks coach I knew from working on deck at the same time. He encouraged me to join a small focus group, and I participated in a few trial practices (thankfully not at 6 a.m., because I was definitely not a morning person).
When the program officially started, life with three young kids made it impossible for me to join. Fast forward to May 2024, and I found myself standing in the exact same lifeguarding spot when Coach Mike struck up a conversation—just like Tasos had years earlier. I told him I wasn’t a morning person, and he replied, “Sure you are—you just don’t know it yet.” That one sentence stuck with me. He invited me to try practice the next day, put me in a lane with Sarah (who was incredibly welcoming), and from there it was all down the lane.
I’ve never swum competitively. As a kid, my siblings and I took swim lessons at Oak Hills High School, taught by a former Olympian named Yoshi, but competitive swimming just wasn’t accessible to us. We didn’t belong to a pool, and if we couldn’t bike or walk to an activity, we couldn’t do it. Swimming was something I enjoyed, not something I thought of as a sport.
That perspective slowly changed. I began teaching swim lessons at PCY in September 2008 thanks to Cathy Engel, who encouraged me to apply after seeing how I worked with kids at the waterpark. I was hired almost immediately and have been teaching group and private lessons ever since. I became a lifeguard in 2011 and, about three years ago, started helping coach the pre-swim team Sandsharks as an assistant coach.
What keeps me coming back to Masters now is the people—and the fact that everyone shows up at such a crazy early hour. For the first time in my life, I’m learning what it means to approach swimming as a sport. After a total knee replacement in 2023 ended my ability to play soccer or run 5Ks, swimming became not just an option, but the option.
This team means a lot to me. It’s incredibly accepting, supportive, and fun, and it feels really good to belong to a team again. I even swam in my very first swim meet at the recent Masters Opener at PCY—and I was so nervous.
Breaststroke has always been my favorite stroke, though my replaced knee doesn’t love it anymore, so I’m learning to appreciate backstroke. Butterfly used to terrify me, but I’ve been working on it so I can better teach it to the Sandsharks—even if I still feel like a beached whale sometimes. Oddly enough, I actually enjoyed the “twister”…until I got a charley horse trying to put my fins on mid-set.
One quirky thing about me: I drive to practice with my swim cap and goggles already on. I live only five minutes away, and it’s become a ritual that helps me mentally prepare to get in the water. Swimming is something I’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t—until now. It’s also helped me better understand the physical and mental challenges my youngest son has faced as a swimmer, and the challenges the young swimmers I coach go through every day.
I’m grateful I finally get to be here—cap, goggles, and all.