For Violet Hewett ‘25 success isn’t measured by medals or the records she’s broken. It’s the countless hours, days and years worth of hard work, sacrifice, and dedication that have shaped her to become the athlete she is.

“I started swimming when I was 7 years old, like everyone else in my family,” Hewett said. “But I really started doing competitive track in my freshman year of high school.”

For most of her life, Hewett’s only focus was swim, figuring it was the only thing she was going to do in her future. In middle school, Hewett continued her journey at Waterloo Swim,  however, a new found interest was slowly emerging. 

“Freshman year was really the year that I realized I really liked track, and was something I wanted to pursue,” Hewett said. “I knew that I was passionate about it and felt that I would if I worked at it, something really could happen.”

The past four years Hewett has been competing for  the Leander Spartans competitive youth track club, while also competing for Westwood’s swim and track team. Between the club and school sports there’s never a free weekend for Hewett as she is always competing either locally or nationally.

“With competitive track there’s never really a break,” Hewett said. “There may be a week or two off during a transition period, but typically there are always races.”

Hewett specializes in the girl’s 100-meter dash and 60-meter indoor sprint,while also participating in Westwood’s sprint relay team. Other than sprinting Hewett also competes in the varsity girls 50 and 100 meter freestyle as well as the  200-meter relay for the swim team. Even with a busy schedule full of track and swim, Hewett works hard to ensure she can balance both school and sports. 

“Although it may seem like sports takes up a large part of your life right now, it doesn’t,” Hewett said. “For me, I always try to balance the two, because I don’t want to jeopardize one for the other.”

Madison Smith, Westwood volleyball and sprints coach, has watched Violet’s high school track journey from the start. Through hard work, dedication, and support from her coaches; Hewett will continue her track journey at Duke University under a track scholarship.  

“Violet is one of the most driven and motivated athletes I’ve ever coached,” Coach Smith said. “I mean her ability to balance school, nutrition, sleep and her performance is truly amazing.”

With eyes on a chance at state, in her final high school season. Hewett seeks to continue working hard and motivating others on and off the field.

“Yes, there are definitely ‘drought periods’, maybe you’re not getting a personal record (PR) or feel like you aren’t getting better,” Hewett said. “But don’t give up, because it will get better even if it doesn’t feel like it, so if you’re going through a phase where you’re lacking motivation don’t worry things will look up.”