For Howard women’s swimming and diving team, championship is ‘for all those who paved the way’

Six inches of snow, icy roads, and a dangerous walk to Howard University. In January, that was the reality for Nicholas Askew, Howard’s director of swimming and diving, as a vicious snowstorm hit Washington, D.C. 

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Askew. He was in the midst of preparing Howard’s swimming and diving teams for the Northeast Conference (NEC) championship, specifically the women’s team, which was looking to claim its first NEC championship in program history. The weather conditions made transportation to campus facilities difficult, so he made mandatory practices optional.

“I remember our coaching staff talking about whether or not it would be safe to even walk to practice,” Askew said. “We had a lot of concerns about getting our team there.”

Well, team captain Skylar Debnam had a different idea.

“An optional practice? Nah, nothing was going to be optional,” Debnam said. “The other team captains and I told everyone to leave for practice 30 minutes earlier and to travel in groups. We wanted to make sure that in case anybody slipped and fell, there would be somebody there to help them up.

“We knew we had to take precautionary measures, but at the end of the day, everybody was going to be there. It was a no-brainer.”

Those practices paid off. The Howard women’s swimming and diving team won its first NEC championship in school history on Feb. 20 at Spire Academy in Ohio. The men’s team also won, claiming its second consecutive championship and its third in four years.

Howard is the first and only historically Black college and university (HBCU) to win a conference championship in swimming and diving.

“We overheard that our women’s team captains told the group that they expect to see everyone at practice,” Askew said. “That was one of those ‘right on’ moments. I remember saying to myself, ‘Yes! This team is on it.’

“Accomplishing this is huge. Actually, it’s ginormous. It’s so big that you have to start making up words to describe it. And knowing that we accomplished this on the 100th anniversary of Black History Month … it’s just extraordinary.”

Askew, who described the victory as “full circle,” recalled how things played out a year ago, when the men’s team claimed its second NEC championship and the women’s team was the runner-up.

“After the women’s team lost last year, I remember seeing them come together,” Askew said. “But the best part is that they did it on their own. They did it without a coach’s prompt. We saw our leaders really step up, and they pledged to each other that they would do whatever it took for that not to happen again.

“I knew then that we had a special team. I knew they’d do whatever it took to make sure the results were different this year.”

Howard men’s swimmer Ty Triche remembers the women’s final race vividly. The men’s team had already secured its championship, which meant he got to sit back and watch the women’s team chase a title he had already won.

The Bison held a 13-point advantage over Central Connecticut State University entering the last race of the competition.

“If you haven’t seen that race yet, then go watch it,” he told Andscape. “I just remember standing there with the biggest smile on my face. I was watching every single member of our 400 women’s relay team, and the gap just kept getting wider and wider and wider. All I could think was, ‘Oh my God. Is this really about to happen? We’re both about to win conference championships.’

“Seeing the joy on their faces [the women] was amazing. We’ve watched the women’s team climb up this ladder of trying to achieve this goal all four years. To see them achieve it was the best thing ever. And the fact that we did it together made it even better.”

Debnam described the win as “surreal.”

“I can’t even begin to tell you how much we prayed that whole week,” she said. “Honestly, I think it still hasn’t really hit me yet. But in that moment, it was just lots of tears, hugs and the feeling of ‘we finally did it.’ We also thought about all the swimmers before us. We really felt like the victory wasn’t just for us, but [also for] all those who paved the way.”

Howard is the only HBCU with an NCAA Division I swimming and diving team. According to USA Swimming, fewer than 2% of all NCAA swimmers are Black.

It wasn’t lost on Triche and Debnam that all of their conference championship competitors looked nothing like them. They wanted to be living proof for young Black swimmers that even when the odds are not in your favor, you can still beat them.

“Back home in Texas, there’s a lot of Black kids getting into swimming,” Triche said. “When I got to Howard, I started to see the impact that I have on these kids. I get messages from my mom asking if she could give random people my number so I can talk to their kids. We get letters from people all over saying, ‘We’re rooting for y’all. Keep holding it down.’

“Until I got here [to Howard], I didn’t realize how important it was to our community to show that Black people do swim. We’re one of those faces that encourages kids to stay in the sport longer.”

Young girls also look up to Debnam.

“I remember when I was a freshman and a little girl came up to me and said, ‘Oh my God, are you Skylar?’ Her mom asked for pictures, and I was taken aback by it because I had just gotten on campus,” she said, chuckling. “But it’s moments like that that make everything worth it.”

Before Askew became the director of Howard’s swimming and diving teams, he was a swimmer at the university. He started his college career in 1996 and won six conference championships, broke several records, and was inducted into the Howard University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.

When asked what he found most rewarding of having spearheaded Howard’s first NEC double championship victory, Askew playfully objected.

“Come on now, you know you can’t ask me that,” he said, grinning. “Man, this program just means so much to me. To pinpoint one thing that’s been the most rewarding is so difficult because there are too many.”

The success of Howard’s program is about more than wins and broken records, he explained. It’s also about the program’s impact on the greater community.

“When we do what we do, and see how many people we’ve touched … it’s priceless. We get messages all the time about how inspiring we are,” he said. “I got a note from an 85-year-old woman who said she started swim class because of our team here at Howard. That’s huge. That’s the most rewarding part about what I do. It’s bigger than any one of us.”

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