When Katie Smith applied for the job at East Lansing as Library Media Manager, the interviewer asked her if there was anything else they should know about her. She told them that she wanted to volunteer for the school water polo team, to which the interviewer responded, “I don’t think we have water polo here.”

Luckily, District Media Specialist Kathy Kowalski was on the interview committee and knew that there was in fact a water polo team and that Madelyn Zink had just taken over the program. 

“I remember Kowalski actually introduced us,” Zink said. “She told me that they had hired a librarian who had water polo experience and I had very little myself. I was very young. I think I was 19 or 20. And so, I was looking for an assistant coach and someone to help out. So the fact that she got hired here, I was like, that’s perfect.”

A few days after hearing about Smith’s experience, Zink came into the library and invited Smith to come to Raptor practice, the club water polo team run out of East Lansing.

From there, Smith started helping out with summer club polo, then decided to help coach the girls swim team in the fall. There was about a year and a half when Smith and Zink were just work friends. They were friendly and enjoyed coaching with one another, but they would never really get together outside of work.

“Coming into Raptor, which is a program that Madi had grown up in, I was very new. So I was kind of walled-off and defensive,” Smith said. “Madi was also 19 and I was like 24. I was married and living an adult life and Madi was still in college. So we were definitely in different places. But what happened, was COVID.”

Zink and Smith were one week into coaching the 2020 spring girls water polo season when they found out the season had to be canceled. And that was when they truly bonded.

 “First of all,” Smith said. “You’re already in a very small community when you are water polo coaches. And then even more when you’re female water polo coaches. And then even more when you’re young. And then even more when your season gets canceled because of a massive pandemic. No one else is ever going to understand that. Ever.”

Now without work tying the two of them together, they had to find other ways to be in each other’s lives.

 “We couldn’t be coworkers anymore because we didn’t have a thing to be coworkers for,” Smith said. “We weren’t seeing each other every day like we used to. So now we had to actively try and see each other outside of work. So I just asked her if she wanted to go pottery painting. And that just like, set the tone.”

From that point on the two were together all the time. During the pandemic, they would come to the high school together in their pajamas, just to work from the library and be together. 

“We were together 24/7 and we just became really close,“ Zink said. “And yeah, we’ve been through a lot and support each other through a lot. And I think that it’s just kind of evolved over the years into many different aspects.”

Smith and Zink have now been coaching together for over five years and through that time they have learned the ins and outs of the other’s coaching style.

“Coaching with her is perfect because we’re very similar but very different,” Zink said. “We have a lot of similar ideas, but also a lot of different ideas. It’s also helpful because if I’m having a bad day, she can take over and if she’s having a bad day, I can take over. You get to have someone that you’re close with, but also respect as a coach.”

“What I like about her in terms of coaching, is that she’s very athlete-focused,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, Madi is the most human-centered coach I’ve ever met. Obviously, we want people to succeed, but for her, that success is for the success of the athlete, not the success of the program.”

Throughout the years, Smith and Zink have become far more than just coworkers. Whether it’s sharing a New York Times crossword puzzle or gluten-free waffles (they both coincidentally got their gallbladders removed and are unable to eat gluten), they’ll always enjoy each other’s company.

“We’ve really bonded over the years,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of mutual respect there and I don’t know- I just- I love her.”