This self-described foodie and South Dakota native is an incoming freshman on the women's basketball team. She sat down with wsucougars.com to talk about her first few weeks in Pullman.
Q: How are your first few weeks in Pullman?
Alexys Swedlund: The first few weeks are really busy. We have a lot going on, but it's all for a purpose. I'm just really honored to be here.
Q: What does your typical day look like?
AS: I wake up at 5:15 every morning. I get ready. Then we have workouts from 6 o'clock until about 8:15. Then from 9:00 to 10:00 I have tutoring, and then I go to English from 10:30 until noon. I eat lunch from about 12:15 to 12:45. And then from 1:00 to 2:50 I have rock and roll class. From 3:00 to 5:00, I have off. I try to get into the gym if I can. And then from 5:30 to 6:30 I have dinner and then I go back to tutoring from 7:00 to 8:00. Then the rest of the night is mine.
Q: How has the academic transition been from high school to college?
AS: It's actually not that bad right now. In high school I took a couple of AP English classes. Those helped me build up my writing ability. There are so many essays we write. So it helped me get to where I'm at right now and helped me whip out the essays – set up my outline and just go.
Q: What's been the hardest part about the transition into college?
AS: Honestly, it's hard at times, but it's not too bad. I've been lucky that I haven't been homesick yet. I think the people that are surrounding me really help with that. My teammates are always supporting me, always telling me to call if I need anything.
We made a trip to Walmart the other day and bought a whole bunch of snacks because there's nothing in the dorms. So little things like that, and always encouraging me in workouts and practice. It's just awesome. I'm so glad I chose WSU.
Q: When it comes to basketball, what are you hoping to most improve on in your first year?
AS: I think going from high school to college everything is going to be a step quicker – a second quicker – so being able to improve my ball handling skills and get a quicker shot. Footwork is really big here so the last couple weeks we've been working a lot on footwork. Once I get that down then I'll be able to transition and know the offenses and the defenses and how the system works.
Q: What skill do you have that you hope you can bring to the team immediately?
AS: Hopefully my scoring. That's what I've been known for in the past and hopefully I can bring that to the team this year.
Q: You won quite a few awards in high school. Could you talk a little but about those?
AS: I don't want to brag. I wish I would've wrote them down. The big one was Miss Basketball, which is basically the South Dakota Player of the Year. I was named to the First Five list. They take the top five players in the state, regardless of classification and pick the best five players. So to be able to be named that is really humbling. It means a lot to me.
Q: What's your favorite part about being in Pullman so far?
AS: I think probably meeting new people. Pullman is such a college town. I love that. I come from South Dakota where it's really small towns. Knowing that you always have a support system around you and people always encouraging you that want you to be better is such a privilege. It's such an honor to be here.
Q: What was the biggest surprise since getting here?
AS: These are fun questions. I like these.
I'm all about food. I love it. The girls talked up how great the food was at the Cougar Athletic Training Table (CATT). I guess I just never believed them. I thought, “Oh, yeah, really good sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly.” But when I walked in, they have chefs, and this great food all laid out. My mouth was just drooling. It's awesome.
Q: Any fun weekend adventures for the rest of the summer?
AS: We went paddle boarding over the Fourth of July weekend. It was super fun. That was my first time out on the Snake River and we went to the Dunes, it was really fun. That was with the team.
The residence hall also tries to schedule activities for the weekends. I think we're going camping this weekend. Just little things like that. Maybe head up to Spokane or something like that.