MONROE — High school sports offer more than athletic competition. Lifelong lessons can be learned through hard work, self-discipline, a sense of pride in school and community spirit, built by hours and hours of grueling practice.

Add in the bonding a team goes through with the day-in, day-out grind of each season, and friendships, as well as teamwork skills, can last a lifetime.

“This is so different than club for them,” Monroe-New Glarus swim coach Linda Moser said.

The Cheesemakers’ swim team is a unique group. Growing up, the summer club teams — MAST and Sugar River — would battle for supremacy under the sun. During winter, swimming for the Green County Golden Gators and other clubs kept the athletes in the warm indoor water while snow built up over the local ponds and waterways. 

Now teenagers, the girls of the co-op attend separate schools that rarely face off in any other sport. And yet, the competition is strong, and friendly. With a solid group of freshmen and sophomores on varsity, the team’s friendship pact grows by the day.

“I just think it’s really cool that more freshmen have come in. I know them from club and they are really nice girls,” sophomore Mekenzie Hammer said.

The underclassmen on the team look up to the departing seniors, which includes Cammi Ganshert and Nina Schiro.

“They are such nice people. They calm us down and they are just like, ‘You’re going to do great.’ I’ve gotten to know all of them this year and it is just amazing. They are all awesome people,” said Morgan Erstad, a freshman, who added that the entire team has become one big family. “High school is so much more about a team instead of individuals like at a club. You learn to bond with your team and it’s so nice. You learn to like everyone and you all become friends.”

Erstad and Hammer have a friendship that goes back deep into their youth, sparked by their mutual love of the water.

“I’ve been swimming with her for so long she’s kind of my best friend,” Hammer giggled after the sectional meet in Baraboo Nov. 3.

Erstad looks up to her longtime pal.

“She’s my best friend and she works so hard. I want to work as hard as her,” Erstad said.

The duo is preparing for the state swim meet, not only as teammates and friends, but as competitors. Both Erstad and Hammer qualified in the 100-yard backstroke — Hammer, the defending state champion, had the second-best time in the state at the sectional this year, while Erstad was fourth.

“What she did last year was so insane that I want to do the same thing,” Erstad said of Hammer’s state title. 

The two will swim as teammates in two relay races and cheer for each other from the sidelines just twice all night — Hammer is the top-seed in the 200-yard individual medley and Erstad won the sectional in the 500-yard freestyle. Both girls also broke school records at the sectional.

“It was amazing to watch them,” Moser said.

Hammer was relishing in her return to the UW-Madison Natatorium, as well as being joined by Erstad. 

“I’m so excited for her,” Hammer said. “Winning state as a freshman is incredible and I really want her to do the same. I want her to know that no matter what she does, she’s going to do amazing and I’ll be proud of whatever she does.”

Hammer and Erstad will share the block in the 200-yard medley relay with freshmen Alyssa Roelli and Karley Michels, and then join sisters Nina and Francesca in the 400-yard freestyle in the last event of the night. Before each race both quartets can be seen behind the block dancing, smiling and keeping things “loose.”

“We always do that. It helps us stay loose and it’s so much fun,” Erstad said.

“I love those girls on my relays. They are so fun to be with. We just have a good time behind the blocks,” Hammer said.

Once in the water, Hammer has just one piece of advice: “Just attack the water, man.”