LA GRANDE — As La Grande girls swim coach Cheyenne Maszk read an email from the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association, she believed it to be nothing by spam.

“There was no way this was true,” she said. “I almost just deleted it before I decided to call our athletic director and to see if he knew anything about it.”

The call to Darren Goodman proved the email correct — Maszk was named Coach of the Year for her guiding the La Grande girls swim team.

Now in her fourth year coaching the Tigers, coaching swimming has been a long term dream for Maszk. A swimmer herself in high school, Maszk recalls with some hesitancy her own swim carer.

“I grew up in John Day before moving to McMinnville for my senior year,” she said. “I went to state in that final year and did not do as well as I would have liked. After swimming my whole life, state was a letdown. I went on to Lane Community College and Eastern Oregon University but did not swim at the collegiate level. I always knew I wanted to coach.”

Maszk finally received the opportunity in La Grande, taking over as the assistant coach at the high school and coaching club at the same time. When Stephen Koza departed as head coach, Maszk stepped up to head coach.

“I learned so much under Steve,” she said. “This team now is just so special to me.”

After finishing second in last season’s state championship to Newport in the 4A/3A/2A/1A girls’ shootout, Maszk will return 11 seniors to next year’s squad.

“It is an exciting time to be swimming in La Grande right now,” Maszk said. “I worry some about the future after all these seniors graduate. Talking to future swimmers, everything will go well until I tell them about the 5:30 a.m. practices. Telling a high school student about 5:30 a.m. is not easy.”

Those early morning times in the pool are not just difficult for the student athletes. Married and with two small children, the early hours are tough on the coach also.

“My husband is a big part of this award as he picks up a lot of the slack at the house, especially during the mornings and when the team travels,” she said. “I also have a great assistant coach in Keegan Dutto. When you have little kids, things happen and sometimes I just cannot be there and Keegan always steps up. He also sees competitions differently than I do and we feed off each other and come up with what is right for the team.”

Maszk and her husband may need to hire a babysitter as she is expected to be in attendance to accept her award on May 18 at the 39th annual OACA banquet to be held in Eugene at Autzen Stadium.