Greene County High School freshman Ava Hinote is swimming for the Carroll Tigers through an athletic sharing agreement. She’s the daughter of Josh and Audrey Hinote of Jefferson and is the lone Greene County student swimming for the Carroll girls. She’s been an avid swimmer throughout her young life. Members of the Hinote family will be responsible for getting her to and from Carroll, which is nothing new since she’s been swimming for CAST (Carroll Area Swim Team) in the cold weather months since she was seven years old.

Hinote talked with Raccoon Valley Radio about the decision to swim in Carroll instead of playing volleyball for the Rams. “It was a hard decision and I had to think about it a long time, like for a lot of years and I just decided swimming makes me happier, so I decided to do that and not volleyball.” She said freestyle is the swimming stroke she’s most sound at. “It’s always been kind of my strong suit. I’ve been getting better at butterfly as the years go on, but definitely freestyle is my strong stroke.”

Ava has had hip issues when running in track and field or jumping in volleyball, but she said she loves swimming and she doesn’t have any issues with her hip when she’s in the pool.

Carroll doesn’t open the season until Sept. 11, one of the latest opening dates of any Fall sport in Iowa, male or female.