KNOX, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Good things come to those who hustle.
It’s a mantra Torri Swartfager lives by.
But it’s not as if Swartfager has much of a choice these days.
She helps run the family farm, as well as a farm supply store in Knox with her husband, Derek. She owns her own hair salon, Sizzlin Stylez. She’s a mother at home to four young children and a mother and coach at the gym at Keystone High School to about 15 more as an assistant girls basketball coach.
Hustle? Yes, Swartfager certainly does that.
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“I tell them that all the time,” Swartfager said, smiling, “they’re like my extra kids that I don’t have at home. My kids are very involved with sports, so they’re running all over the place doing their things while I’m with these girls. When they can be, they are here.”
Swartfager’s brood at home consists of Ava, 8; Kenna, 7; Cade, 5; and Lexi, 3.
Her other brood at Keystone consists of the varsity and junior varsity players, as well as the third- and fourth-grade girls basketball team she started.
That’s a lot of children.
Swartfager wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I don’t think I’m going anywhere,” she said. “I have a lot of kids coming through. It’s good for my kids to be around. My kids love it.
“I started a third- and fourth-grade basketball program at Keystone. We had a sixth grade program for years. I have some of the girls helping. The varsity girls are like celebrities.”
(Torri Swartfager and her eldest daughter, Ava)
Swartfager was a standout guard in her own right during her playing days at Union High School.
Then Torri Smith, she was a first-team all-Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference selection as a senior in the 2007-08 campaign, averaging nearly 15 points per game.
She was a member of some of the great Damsel teams under Josh Meeker, who left coaching shortly after Swartfager graduated. He returned this season to Union.
With Swartfager on the other bench at Union in late January, it was still surreal for the former Damsel star.
Meeker was there again. So was her former teammate, Nikki Davis — now Nikki Staley — as Meeker’s assistant.
“Two years ago when I came back, being on the opposite side of the court, yeah, it was a little different,” Swartfager said. “This time, with (Meeker) and Nikki, it was really cool. I kinda wish (Former Union girls and boys basketball coach and current District 9 official) Karen Davis was reffing. It would have been all four of us back together again.”
Swartfager hadn’t considered coaching until three years ago when she decided to give it a try as a volunteer at Keystone. But the junior varsity coach left close to the start of the season and Swartfager was thrust into that role.
She wondered if she could handle all of her converging responsibilities.
Turned out she could — and quite well.
“The first year I was asked to volunteer just to basically play against the girls,” Swartfager said. “Then the JV position came open and they didn’t have anybody at the last minute. I was already there all the time. But I have four small kids and I just didn’t know if I could do it. I ended up taking it and now I’m in for the long haul.”
Swartfager is still cultivating her skills as a coach.
Keystone head girls basketball coach Andy Traister finds her invaluable.
“One thing she really brings to the table is tenacity,” Traister said. “She gets after it and knows when to push their buttons. Sometimes I don’t know when to push their buttons and she knows when to push them.
“She’s a great, great, great asset. She brings a lot to the team.”
Swartfager is old-school when it comes to her coaching chops.
She said things have changed a lot since she last put on a high school basketball uniform in 2008.
“It is a lot different, just the way society is now. But I’m very fortunate with what we have at Keystone, I’m trying to bring back the old way of coaching,” Swartfager said. “It’s different being a coach. I had to learn — and I’m still not there yet, I don’t think — how to explain to them what I want them to do because I always just showed them what to do. I’m getting better and they’ve been patient with me. I’m very open with them. I treat them like my daughters.”
Swartfager doesn’t plan on leaving the bench any time soon.
Even with the demands of her family and businesses.
She enjoys the grind — and the hustle.
“I really love it,” Swartfager said. “I’m planning on being around her for awhile.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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