Hannah Beavers had to battle throughout her collegiate years just for the opportunity to do the one thing she loves best: swim.
Beavers, a senior on the University of Toledo women’s swimming and diving team, has suffered from chronic back pain since her freshman season. She swam for three years for the Rockets before her back problems forced her to stop competitive swimming.
CELEBRATING SUCCESS: UToledo recognizes the Class of 2023 with a series of stories featuring students receiving their degrees at spring commencement.
An eager swimming prospect out of Olentangy Liberty High School in Powell, Ohio, Beavers came to UToledo with high hopes. While she never rose to the level of an elite college swimmer, she is proud of the effort she made just to stay in the pool for as long as she did.
“My biggest accomplishment was being able to swim those three years and being able to compete at max level,” Beavers said. “At times, I didn’t know if I would be able to swim, just from the amount of pain I was in.”
Beavers’ best season came in her freshman year when she competed in four events at the 2020 MAC Championships, setting a personal-best time of 28.28 in the 50 backstroke and recording season-best times in the 100, 200 back and 100 butterfly. But back pain limited her time in the pool the next two seasons. By her senior year, Hannah could no longer swim competitively. She was left with a difficult decision: give up the sport she loved.
Beavers met with Head Coach Brie Globig to tell her she was resigning from the team. Globig had other ideas.
“I told Hannah that I would still love her to be on the team in some capacity, that there was an opportunity for her to be a student coach if she was interested,” Globig said. “I wanted her to have an opportunity to still be with her teammates.”
Suddenly, a new window of opportunity opened for Beavers. She fully embraced her new role as a student coach.
“Getting the opportunity to coach at the collegiate level is amazing,” Beavers said. “I absolutely loved being able to coach just because it was a unique situation. I can’t say a lot of people at 22 years old have coached at the collegiate level.”
Graduating senior Hannah Beavers, center, swam for three years on The University of Toledo women’s swimming and diving team until chronic back pain caused her to stop competing. She then became a student coach.
“I was glad to have Hannah continue to participate with the team this year as a student coach,” Globig said. “She made a positive impact each of her four seasons and it was rewarding to see her impact on the pool deck too. It is always bittersweet to say goodbye to your seniors, but I know Hannah will be successful in her next step in life. I was grateful for her time with the program.”
Beavers is finishing her final semester as a UToledo student and will graduate Saturday. An exercise science major with a minor in chemistry, she is hoping to attend graduate school next year. Beavers is contemplating a career in exercise science but hasn’t ruled out a future in coaching.
“I would love to give back to other athletes because I feel like I have endured a lot as an injured athlete,” she said. “I want to be able to help athletes get back to what they’re doing and let them succeed. I would love to maybe coach at the collegiate level or even at the high school level.”
So while Beavers’ college swimming career may not have lived up to the dreams she had when she became a Rocket, she has no regrets about the path she chose.
“Swimming really shaped the type of person I am today,” Beavers said. “It’s given me the ability to push myself and a drive to succeed.”
