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Lindsay Hams, Assistant Pool Manager at Egypt Valley, discovered the club thanks to her older brother Kyle, who worked here as a lifeguard two years prior.

“I was also approached with a job offer by the pool manager at the time, Katie Clarin, who was my water polo coach,” said Hams, who greatly enjoys being able to work with the children at Egypt Valley. “I always love the fun energy that the kids bring every day to the pool. I can always rely on their out-of-pocket questions, jokes and happiness to provide me entertainment and laughs.”

Because Hams wants to work with kids in the future, she appreciates that working with a diverse set of children at EVCC is providing her with great experiences. Outside of the summer months, she attends Grand Valley State University.

“I’m currently going into my final year of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program and I’m getting ready to apply to graduate school for Speech-Language Pathology,” explained Hams, who is also observing three Speech Therapists. “One is in Michigan, and due to COVID-19, I had the opportunity to observe two Speech Therapists in Massachusetts over Zoom. They are providing me with great experiences in both the public and private sectors of the field.”

Hams, who friends would describe her as kind-hearted, dedicated and selfless, is no stranger to the pool. Her father was the head swim coach for Catholic Central High School for 28 years and she accompanied him to many of his practices throughout that time. She eventually started swimming competitively her freshman year of high school—when she joined the Rockford High School team.

“I swam on the team for four years, creating amazing friendships and finding a deeper love for the sport,” Hams said, noting her love for the water really stuck with her when she started playing water polo. “I started playing in 6th grade for the Rockford Middle School team and continued at Rockford High School and into college at Grand Valley State University. In high school, I was on the varsity team all four years and was the starting Hole Set player.”

Hams received All-State, All-Region, All-Conference and All-District awards, in addition to her team going to the State Championships every year and placing second, third, fourth and fifth.

“After high school, I became the Rockford Middle School Girls Water Polo coach while I was attending Grand Rapids Community College,” Hams said. “In my second year of college, I transferred to Grand Valley and joined their club team.”

Hams is very passionate about music—especially live music and going to concerts—though she claims to have no rhythm and barely passed her required band class in middle school.  

“My favorite concerts I have been to include Vance Joy, Post Malone, Panic at the Disco, and Hozier,” she said. “I’m very excited that concerts have started to resume and am looking forward to going to the Harry Styles concert as my first concert this year.”

Hams loves finding new music on Spotify using the “Discover Weekly” playlist that’s created based on the music genres that she listens to the most. Another favorite playlist of hers is called “My Life is a Movie,” which includes many of her favorite artists such as BORNS, The Lumineers, and Peter McPoland.

“At the pool, I’m the designated DJ during the day and typically play our ‘Egypt Valley’ Spotify playlist that is almost 15 hours long,” Hams said, explaining the playlist is robust and was originally created on an iPod Classic around 2009 and has been added to every year. “Around 2017, all of the music was transferred to the Spotify playlist, is still updated every year, and played down at the pool almost every day!”

If she could trade places with anyone for a day, Hams would choose Oprah Winfrey.

“I would like to experience her everyday life of helping others, kindness and generosity,” she said.

If you see Lindsay around the Club, be sure to say, “Hello!”