After 35 years of teaching and 12 years of being the El Paso High School assistant swim Coach, Betsy Ighnat, is retiring.
Coach Ighnat is a beloved part of the swim team, making many wonder how they’ll carry on, but after so many years of driving from Las Cruces to EPHS every day, she feels it is time to call a career out of it.
“I’m really sad because she did a lot for us. She was like the mom of the team. She would organize everything and when she’s not here, it’s a mess,” team captain, Paula Kish said.
Along with being like the mom of the team, Coach Ighnat lives further away from school than most students, making it more difficult for her to attend practices every morning. Although it may be more difficult, coach Ighnat never failed to be there for the team.
“She actually drives to our practices every morning from an hour away. She lives in Doña Ana. So she drives an hour each way everyday…she just helps a ton in a lot of ways,” Head Coach Patrick Gailey said.
As the assistant coach, Betsy Ighnat does her best to support Head Coach Patrick Gailey in whatever is needed for the team. During her years of coaching the team has won 12 consecutive championships.
“I don’t come with a strong swimming background, but my strength is my ability to assess a situation and jump in there and help any way possible,” Ighnat said.
Coach Ighnat’s guidance for the team and ability to assess a situation, has contributed to the team’s success. She mentions her and Gailey’s technique for the best results is to have both JV and varsity train together.
During her time at El Paso high, she also assisted hall of fame coach, Quincy “Dow” Farley until 2019. In that span, both boys and girls teams set new school records and it continued as recently as 2022.
“It helps the kids who might be on a JV team swimming slower times gain experience by swimming with the kids who are faster,” Coach Ighnat said.
This technique seems to be working well for them considering the team’s twenty year winning streak.
“I think I’ll miss the excitement of the swim meets, and winning is always fun, but seeing kids improve and make themselves better people is the real joy for me,” coach Ighnat said.
