United Community Bank Athlete of the Week: Minot High’s Grant Schaeffer

MINOT, N.D. – Records are meant to be broken.

The Minot High boys swim team rewrote two pool records in a dual meet versus Bismarck Century last Thursday. The 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay will have new names etched, and senior Grant Schaeffer’s name will be on both.

“[My teammates] were all going crazy. I don’t really hear anything else. It takes me about ten seconds to actually look at the board,” Grant said.

“He’s my race partner in practice, so every day I get to race next to him, so once we get to meets and individual events I get to race next to him there too. And then in relays, I get to be on his team, which is awesome,” senior Peyton Bartsch said.

Grant isn’t the first member of the Schaeffer family to swim at Minot High. His older brother, Griffin, graduated in 2020.

“We know what we’re getting when we get Schaeffers. They’re hardworking really respectful individuals. That first year that grant swam with us we knew he was something special,” head coach Jake Solper said.

When Grant talks to his team, everybody listens.

“Grant’s a great kid, he always wants to make people laugh and he’s also a very kind kid,” Peyton said.

“I know that I consider myself very fortunate to have Grant as a leader on our team,” Solper said.

But really, Grant just wants to talk about his teammates.

“A couple years ago we had a lot of depth, a lot of talent, and we’ve had that all the years. But I haven’t seen the dedication this team has in a long time,” Grant said.

With three weeks until the state meet in Fargo, Grant has his sights set on more records, leading his team in the pool to the postseason.

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