Analysis By Kevin Lin
If one were to meet some who watched the “Avengers” ten times, it would not cross their mind that that person would be a three-time state champion swimmer, along with being a sports editor for the Wheaton record. Maggie Franke from Minnesota, a senior from Wheaton college; Maggie’s story is one that is unique to herself, but elements that will inspire those who listen.
Publicly, Maggie has gained public attention from her notable swimming achievements. It all started in her freshman year at Wayzata high school. Being one out of thousands of students, Maggie decided freshmen year to join the swim team. In Maggie’s recollection, she remembers that “I was an alternate my freshmen year . . . I was one of the slower people on my team.”
This would not stop her since her coach was influential in her growth process as Maggie’s coach. Maggie would develop this mindset as one of her coach’s pupils “She taught me to be independent and to not listen to what other people to tell me what to do so to speak.” With this mindset of determination; Maggie would win the state championship for three consecutive years. Her team full of people, who would get offered scholarships to swim at other States, would push each other on in terms of teamwork and success.
Coaches would seek her out and out of the numerous scouts, Wheaton College would offer her a spot. Maggie mentions “I really like my coach,” as a testament to her passion for swimming, being one of the major factors in deciding on going to Wheaton College. This as it turns out, would benefit Wheaton College substantially.
Maggie would participate and win her swimming conference with her team freshmen year, and recalls “I was actually put on the relay last minute.” This would be one of numerous cases as Maggie was repeatedly used over and over again as a valued player for Wheaton College. More responsibility would be given to her, the more valuable her performance was in the pool.
When going to Wheaton, Maggie recounts “I felt a lot more responsibility coming to Wheaton since I’m needed performance-wise in the pool.” However, this increased responsibility would not be without its cost as Maggie remembers “a lot of anxiety in my sophomore year, but I learned that I need to care more about the team. I had to perform to the best of my ability and step up.” This would be a recurring theme not only in her swimming life but in other aspects of her life.
Writing and sports would be major passions that she would pursue since the beginning of her middle school years. This would start from when she began her writing career as a writer for her middle school yearbook. This would eventually be the foundation of her ambition to go into Journalism as she mentions “I want to pursue a career in Journalism, either as a writer for a newspaper or magazine, a sports information director for a college, or free-lance,” during her Senior year on the NCSA website. From then on she would be the sports editor of the high school newspaper “The Trojan.”
Within her time at Wayzata high school, she became a sports editor, and as a sports editor, she would be leading a team of staffers to cover major stories for her school. Maggie would have to delegate tasks to her co-workers of around 35 members. During the interview, Maggie pointed out that when she transferred to Wheaton, her experience as a sports editor changed. One of the changes she note was that there was less “creative leeway,” compared to Wayzata because the Record had certain values to uphold.
Some other things to note were that her staff amount was smaller, which would limit the amount of details to cover on a subject. She also pointed out that motivating her team at Wheaton was more difficult since she could not keep them accountable, for her not being able to see them every day. Tori Dobleske, a roommate of Maggie emphasizes that “Maggie may not seem outwardly organized at every moment, but is more competent and capable than most people I know to get all of her work done,” which can be interpreted that Maggie will work with whatever team is given to her.
Being a senior, Maggie recognizes that she will eventually leave Wheaton, but recounts certain qualities that she has learned over the past few years. She recognizes that her faith has been a big part of her life in her interview “I grew up in a Christian household, life was not perfect . . . but I was taught that there was always grace and forgiveness and knowledge of what is right and wrong.” Maggie demonstrates what it means to be an independent individual in a society that holds to her belief. Some final words from her Tori that define Maggie is embodied in this statement “Maggie is the definition of strong, confident, capable, loyal and [a] dedicated woman who will excel in anything she sets her mind too.”