FEATURED: Glacier's extraordinary A.J. Popp is already dominating pool

A.J. Popp is not supposed to be an ordinary girl.

She’s the fastest swimmer to come out of Kalispell in at least a decade, maybe ever. A home-schooled, bear-hunting, lion-hunting, dog-training, ultra-competitive daughter of a pair of Ton(i)y’s, who is breaking records and winning at high school and club meets at a breakneck pace, and, oh by the way, she’s 13 years old.

But the high school freshman sure seems to talk and act a lot like most 13-year-old girls do. She’s carefree, affable and fun.

She smiles a lot, says ‘cool’ a lot, speaks with the confidence and effortlessness of a teenager, and just genuinely seems to be enjoying life. And why shouldn’t she? Life is good for A.J. Popp, and she doesn’t seem to have a care in the world.

To wit, this is how Popp’s dream of swimming in the Olympics was hatched:

“I remember watching the 2008 Olympics and being like ‘Oh, those guys are so cool, I’ve got to try for it’,” she said, nonchalantly.

And this is why, after being home-schooled her entire life, she wanted to enroll in one of the state’s biggest high schools this fall.

“I wanted to be with my friends during the winter because they’re always (at Glacier swimming practice),” she said. “Back last year, I wouldn’t see them for three months and I’m like (high school swimming) seems pretty cool. I should try it, see what happens.”

And this is how the sometimes-difficult transition has gone so far.

“Yeah, pretty easy. I just build more friends now (in high school),” she said with a laugh. “I like it. It’s a fun time.”

And none of this is to say that Popp is a giggling, gossipy teenager. She’s far, far from it. She’s a terrific student. She’s a terrifying physical force in the pool. She’s unfathomably hard working. And when she says she wants to be an Olympian, she says it with the straight-faced determination — and with the times in the pool to back it up — that makes it sound like a perfectly realistic goal.

OK, one more. Here’s what she says about that work ethic that has her practicing sometimes twice a day and doing “dry land” workouts on top of it, and if she worries about burning out.

“It is a lot,” she said. “But if you have a goal and the right mindset it’s not that hard. It’s hard work but just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you have to make it hard on your mind.”

There are definitely not a lot of 13-year-olds who sound like that.

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Before deciding to attend Glacier in the fall, Popp was already a well-known figure in the swimming world. Her times are not just elite for a high school swimmer, they rank nationally for her age. She’s posted one of the 10-fastest times for any 13-year-old in the country in six different races, as of December 26, including the 100 and 200-meter backstrokes where she ranks second and third, respectively.

“I’ve watched enough swimmers and seen enough kids swim that when somebody’s pretty talented you pick them out pretty fast,” Major Robinson, her coach for the Kalispell Aquatic Team (KATS) of which Popp’s been a part of since she was five, said.

“There were a lot of things that I could see right off the bat. She’s got a very natural feel for the water and moves through it so fluidly. It’s just so smooth.”

“Her ability, I don’t know where it comes from because when I was in high school and I was younger I was a weenie,” A.J.’s dad, Tony, said. “I was not athletic at all. When a football came towards me I’d hide.”

“My wife (Toni) grew up on an island, Jamaica, and she doesn’t know how to swim a lick.”

While she may not have inherited her raw athleticism from her parents, A.J.’s work ethic has been fostered over years hunting, fishing and learning at home.

Each of her coaches — Robinson and Glacier coach David Lillard — pointed to Popp’s tenacity as the thing that differentiates her most, and allows her to post incredible times without being the most technically sound swimmer, something she’s working closely with her coaches, Robinson in particular, to improve.

“She’s really strong,” Lillard said. “In practice the other day we were doing the 50-(meter) kick (swimming using only your legs). Normally, a really fast person doing the 50 kick might go 40 seconds, that would be really cooking.

“She went in 31 seconds.

“She doesn’t seem to be bothered by pain,” he continued. “There’s certainly a base level of talent but that didn’t get her to where she is. She likes to work hard, she likes to race, she’s not afraid to hurt herself to get there and that’s impressive and it’s fun to coach.”

Robinson, a Missoula native who competed at the University of Utah and swam at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, took over as the KATS coach last year.

“I could be the best coach in the world,” he said. “But that doesn’t do anything if the athletes don’t want it.

“A.J.’s made up her mind. She wants to be good. And now I’m here to help her with steps along the way on how to get there.”

In her first three meets at Glacier, Popp has set five individual records and a pair of relay records, and it’s almost a foregone conclusion that she’ll own every school record not just before the end of her career, but before the end of this season.

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So about the bear hunting. lion hunting and dog training.

Tony sums up his family’s recreation habits thusly: “If we’re not hunting we’re fishing. If we’re not fishing, we’re hunting.”

A.J. has taken to the outdoors almost as smoothly as she has to the pool.

“She’s killed a bear, she’s shot one deer, (shot) wild boar in Florida, and we have some wild rabbits in our yard and every now and then my wife grinds up the meat for the dogs, for dog food, and A.J. will run out and kill a rabbit or two and skin them.

“A lot of people ski, or a lot of people ice skate, or a lot of people cross country ski. Winter sports, you know?” he continued.

“We chase lions.”

Literally.

The Popp’s hunt mountain lions, bobcats and cougars, and a few weeks back, while on a hunt, a dog A.J. had raised from a puppy was killed by wolves after treeing a cougar. The incident was, understandably, an extremely emotional one for the family. A.J. handled it with poise that belies her youth.

“I was worthless at work,” Tony said. “She has way more guts than I do. We both cried every night but she still practiced and did the job she had to do. She shocks me every day.”

Five days after her dog was killed, without missing a minute of practice, A.J. swam at Great Falls Relays and set another school record.

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While Popp’s career has taken off as a swimmer and her big dreams remain alive, she and her family have kept what happens in the pool in perspective.

“We don’t talk about swimming at home,” Tony said. “She’s having fun, let her have fun.

“(Swimmers) have to enjoy it. That’s one of the biggest things even USA Swimming pushes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re (U.S. Olympians) Katie Ledecky or Michael Phelps or Missy Franklin, if you’re not having fun you’re not going to do it.”

There’s no question A.J. is having fun. It’s fun setting records, fun making friends, and, for her, even fun working her tail off to chip away at her times. Lillard says some of her times are already “a quality college time for a Division III or Division II” college.

As she continues to grow, in school and in the pool, there’s apparently but one thing that can stop A.J. Popp.

As long as her brain stays in it and she doesn’t want to chase boys and drive fast cars,” Tony said.

“(If she does that) her mom will just kill her and we won’t have to worry about it.”

Popp and the Wolfpack return to the pool Saturday at 11 a.m. in Missoula.