This Mother’s Superior for Pierce Swim Team : Brahmas Look to Terry Felix, a 39-Year-Old Mom, for Guidance and a Good Showing in Freestyle Events

Terry Felix rises on weekday mornings at her Agoura Hills home, drives her four kids to school and heads for classes at Pierce College.

Then she goes swimming.

Not for recreation, but for serious training.

Felix, 39, is in her first season on the Pierce team after not swimming competitively since she attended Kennedy High about two decades ago.

“I thought I would just take a swim class and here I am on the team,” Felix said.

All it took was a little persuasion.

Felix, a nurse who gave up her profession a few years ago to raise a family, has been at Pierce for three semesters and carries a full load of courses toward becoming a nurse practitioner.

She also joined a swim class to strengthen two surgically repaired disks in her lower back.

“When you have that kind of surgery, it makes it impossible to do some sports,” she said. “You just can’t do them anymore, so you have to find another way to keep yourself in shape.”

It wasn’t long before Mike Garibaldi, the Pierce swimming co-coach with Fred Shaw, noticed Felix’s smooth strokes in the swim class and recruited her for the team.

“She’s got good technique,” Shaw said. “Her times are improving faster than the other swimmers. It’s a function of her being a hard worker.”

In a sport dominated by youngsters, Felix hasn’t made a big splash but she hasn’t sunk, either.

Felix swims the 200- and 500-yard freestyles and her improvement has been steady. Her time has dropped in the 200 from 2 minutes 50 seconds to 2:39 and in the 500 from 7:49 to 7:18.

She has finished third twice in each event, much to the delight of her teammates.

“We cheer for her like any of the other swimmers,” said team captain Sarah Warren, a long-distance specialist from El Camino Real High. “She’s a role model. It’s good to have someone to look up to and she’s given some good advice to some of the girls, myself included.”

Said Heather Strong, a freshman from Louisville High: “We absolutely love her. We call her Mom. It’s amazing how well she fits in. . . . She’s got a better body than most of the girls on the team.”

Felix’s unassuming personality and disarming smile have helped her click with the rest of the squad.

“We all have that thing in common, that we work hard and there’s respect and admiration for each other,” Felix said. “I have a tremendous amount of admiration for these kids.”

Because of her parental responsibilities, Felix has to carefully plan her daily schedule. She attends classes in the mornings and squeezes in some workouts with Garibaldi. The rest of her training comes with the team in the afternoons that she can be there.

Sometimes, her children watch the workouts and root for Felix during meets.

“She’s pretty fast,” said Benjamin, 11, the oldest. “It makes me proud of her.”

On weekday evenings, Felix and her husband Ed, a film and television special-effects craftsman, gather the kids at home. Then come the nightly chores of preparing dinner, helping the children with their homework and whatever else comes up.

When everyone else goes to bed, Felix hits the books.

“I haven’t had time to work for a long time but the reality of the world today is that both [spouses] have to work to provide for their families,” Felix said. “In a couple of years, I’d like to become a nurse practitioner. They can do so much more [than a nurse]. They can teach, they can diagnose, they can prescribe certain medicines. The opportunities for them are far greater. . . . There’s also an element of respect.”

Among her Pierce teammates and coaches, she already has gained that.