Girls prep swimming: German exchange student Hoppe bonds with Sandecki, Saints

ST. CHARLES – Linda Hoppe of Solingen, Germany began learning English seven years ago, when she was 10.

Sometimes, her native tongue still slips in with her acquired one, as it did at a St. Charles East girls swimming practice in August.

Hoppe, a junior foreign exchange student, uttered the now-iconic phrase “Das is good, ja,” and more than a few teammates’ ears perked upon hearing the German words for “this” and “yes.” Then came the giggling.

“It was the first thing that kind of broke the seal of Linda’s shyness,” fellow Saints junior Sarah Sandecki said.

Sandecki would know.

The Saints use some variation of “Das is good, ja,” when Hoppe, Sandecki’s newest sibling of sorts, prepares to compete in the backstroke, her specialty event, or any others.

Hoppe is staying with the Sandecki family this school year, bringing the clan’s foreign exchange student experience full-circle. Sandecki’s father, Bart, a native of Poland, studied in New Jersey when he was 18 and quickly took a shine to the United States. He didn’t want to leave.

Bart Sandecki finished college in New Jersey and met his wife, Dawn, at a party through mutual friends.

“I know the whole story,” Hoppe said. “We got to this point.”

Sarah Sandecki can spout some recent Hoppe history, too. It was easy to embrace once she felt more comfortable with her new teammate and roommate.

Those are in no particular order, by the way.

One early hurdle was a shared skepticism between Sarah Sandecki and her younger brother, Salvatore, a sixth-grader at Wredling Middle School.

“Him and I, before this experience, we were kind of questioning whether (it would work),” Sarah Sandecki said. “Because it’s just kind of been the two of us. And we were like, ‘I don’t know. Another sibling in the house?’ But, I don’t know. Him and I can’t imagine her not being here.”

The feeling is mutual for Hoppe, whose work ethic has impressed veteran East coach Joe Cabel.

Cabel also is fond of the novelty of having foreign exchange students in the pool. He struggles to think of coaching many others since joining the program in 1980.

“This is new for us, and I thought it’d be a good experience for our girls,” he said. “And it’s proven to be a nice thing.”

Hoppe began swimming when she was 4 but took time off last school year to focus on her studies. She said scholastic sports in Germany are offered on a club basis, but not done in tandem with a school.

Her hometown, north of Cologne in western Germany, is world renowned for its cutlery, which seems fitting for a sport in which knifing through the water is the object.

Hoppe and Sarah Sandecki recall an early FaceTime session when the girls realized they both competed in the backstroke. Neither has approached the IHSA state meet cut of 59.08 seconds in the 100 backstroke this season, but getting there is a shared goal as the Saints’ Nov. 14 sectional approaches.

“We say that each of the strokes has a reputation. The breaststrokers are kind of the wild child, and the backstrokers are typically an easygoing group,” Cabel said. “Both Sarah and Linda are pretty easygoing girls and in control and seem like they have a nice, steady beat going to them. Good rhythm.”

Sarah Sandecki largely has served the Saints as a freestyle sprinter this season, but both she and Hoppe found themselves together during Saturday’s 100 backstroke at East’s annual College Events Invitational.

Saints coach Kent Pearson shared his nickname for this particular event before Sandecki and Hoppe entered the pool.

“Oh, look,” he said. “It’s the sister race.”

Sandecki said she considers Hoppe “like my sister now,” while Hoppe, who has two biological sisters, feels a similar bond to Sandecki.

Having such a fluid home life certainly has eased the ongoing discovery exchange students endure.

“It’s cool to have a school team where I can practice with and swim the meet,” Hoppe said. “And then the football games, to go there. Homecoming was quite a good thing I experienced, because we don’t have homecoming in Germany. The assemblies, they are new to me. We don’t have assemblies in Germany. And everything is a little bit different. But it’s cool. I’ve learned a lot.”

To borrow Hoppe’s famous, almost first stateside words, “Das is good, ja.”

“Das is blissful” sounds more like it.