Arizona Christian University women’s swimmer Kateryna Kashyrina, who fled war-torn Ukraine in 2022, pushes off the block to begin a 500 freestyle race at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, on December 7, 2024. (Photo courtesy of ACU Sports Information)
GLENDALE – The only thing we have left is our faith.
That was the indelible message of an email delivered to Brad Hering, a former pastor and fifth-year coach of Arizona Christian University men’s and women’s swim teams.
“That’s like the best sermon title I’ve ever heard,” Hering said.
The statement alone was profound. But to its source, it was an SOS flare in the night.
On March 5, 2022, Kateryna Kashyrina and her family packed all their belongings and abandoned their home in Odesa, Ukraine. Though they lived in a southern port city on the Black Sea nearly 300 miles from the capital of Kyiv, that didn’t prevent utter destruction and terror from Russian soldiers who had invaded the country just nine days earlier.
Kashyrina said she had never seen her dad so scared. She woke up one morning and his solemn voice said the war had begun. Her parents wanted Kashyrina and her younger brother, Lev, to flee without them, but she insisted that whatever they did would be done together.
“I was always growing up Christian,” said Kashyrina, who practices Orthodox Christianity like 62.7% of her country. “We always believed in God.”
As a 15-year-old, Kashyrina was training for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games while studying to be an attorney at the National University Odesa Academy of Law.
Her family escaped as one unit after several sleepless nights in the basement. Kashyrina’s aspirations, however, appeared to have joined the piles of ashes as thunderous explosions still reverberated in her ears.
“I remember we were just crying, and it was just horrible,” Kashyrina said. “I’ve never been so low in my life.”
Fast-forward three years, the Russia-Ukraine war still rages on. Kashyrina’s home and swimming facility have been nothing but rubble for nearly that long.
Not only is Kashyrina safe, she is closing out her junior year at Arizona Christian University in Glendale – about 6,442 miles from home. As a poetic bonus, she recently qualified for the 2025 NAIA Swimming and Diving Championships in Elkhart, Indiana, which began on March 5, exactly three years since her displacement.
How Kashyrina endured 12 hours in unmoving traffic during a Ukrainian mass exodus, not knowing if firearm-laden border officials would let her family leave, is one thing. How a past vacation spot in Corfu, Greece ended up being their refuge, is another. The total package of events that led to her pursuing a new life in the United States is simply miraculous.
Arizona Christian University women’s swimmer Kateryna Kashyrina, left, and her coach Brad Hering embrace after a practice on Feb. 27, 2025, at the Firestorm Recreation Center in Glendale. (Photo courtesy of Brad Hering)
“You got to be careful what you pray for,” Hering said.
Quickly after he learned about the situation in Ukraine, Hering, a former Christian evangelist for the global Antioch Network, prayed for a tangible way to help the vulnerable Eastern European nation. After about two weeks passed, Hering received the email from Kashyrina, expressing her interest in the school and aspirations to be an Olympic swimmer.
He had his opportunity in the form of a person, something he said he never imagined happening.
“Once (the email) came, I knew it was from the Lord,” Hering said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ I’ve got to answer this. I’ve got to try to answer this call.”
Hering responded by sending his phone number. Kashyrina said she dialed her older sister, Aleksandra-Leona, and the two shed tears of joy together. Aleksandra-Leona had traveled to America in 2015, where she attended Long Island University in New York and later moved to California.
It was because of Aleksandra-Leona’s encouragement and West Coast location that Kashyrina researched the small NAIA university in Arizona in the first place. She insulated Kashyrina and the rest of her family’s spirits with fervent prayer and even flew out to meet them in Bulgaria before they found eventual respite in Greece.
“I didn’t believe that it’s actually true,” Kashyrina said when Hering first called her on April 9, 2022. “I can go to the U.S. and study there. Because it was like kind of my dream.”
Despite poor phone service, Kashyrina and Hering called each other nearly every day for the next five months.
Their constant communication slowly convinced Kashyrina that collegiate athletics was a real possibility and it also helped her work on speaking English, which she described as broken “British English,” at its best.
Yet, for all that good, many obstacles were still in her way.
One of the primary obstacles for Kashyrina was finances. Ukrainian currency, hryvnia, is substantially weaker than the United States dollar – one hryvnia is equivalent to 0.024 dollars, according to Forbes. So, paying off ACU’s 2022-23 fall tuition of $29,850 – not to mention the $51,590 total to prove she could afford additional living expenses – was a pipe dream without serious aid..
With the period of awarding academic scholarships over, Hering asked university leaders if an exception could be made for Kashyrina. They, including President Len Munsil, who was once a practicing attorney, held a call with Kashyrina and her family, and said yes. Kashyrina was eligible for the provost scholarship, but even ACU’s highest academic offer barely got her past the 50% mark.
In what Hering dubbed a “marathon,” the coach and hopeful athlete were not even halfway to the finish line. Some university donors got Kashyrina closer to the tape, but by June she was still a good distance from the goal. Closing the gap weighed heavily on Hering, who admitted he could never bring himself to promise anything to Kashyrina.
On the eve of his oldest son Zeb’s wedding in Washington, Hering said he thought he “blew it” as he overlooked the Puget Sound while staying at a friend’s house. But, while absorbed in his own thoughts, his friend’s dog came over to him and rolled over. The former lead pastor of 14 years was instantly reminded of a biblical passage that said commit everything to the Lord.
Why? “Commit” in Hebrew roughly translates to “roll over.”
“That dog rolling over out of nowhere reminded me that God was saying, ‘You have not submitted,’” Hering said. “You’re trying to do this all on your power. Roll over, surrender it all, Brad. You’ve tried your hardest.”
And shortly after this, Hering said the name of a long-time friend popped into his head. He texted his friend a quick snapshot of Kashyrina’s situation. While en route to his son’s rehearsal dinner, Hering received a message saying his friend would pay the difference (about $13,500) the next morning. And the payment came just two days before the fall deadline.
“I almost drove into Puget Sound,” Hering said. “When I told (Kashyrina’s family), you would think they won the World Cup. They talked over each other. I thought they were like Italian, yelling at each other and everything.”
One giant hurdle cleared, Kashyrina now needed a student visa to enter the United States. She made an appointment at a U.S. embassy in Florence, Italy on Aug. 4. She needed to be in Glendale on Aug. 10.
When going through the approval process, Kashyrina said an officer mistakenly gave her both a visa and her passport, when an individual can only legally possess one or the other. Scared and confused by a combination of things, she didn’t notice and left, only for her mother to alert her of the error. So Kashyrina, her sister and mother returned to the embassy the same day.
“They were already closed, and they were like, ‘No, we can’t do anything about it,’” Kashyrina said. “We’re like, ‘No, please, you don’t understand. We need to leave.’ … We were just crying and asking for these two security guards to take my passport and give it to the officer and say that it was a mistake.
“And I don’t know how, but a security guard said, ‘I will take it,’ and I got my visa. … It was August 9th, it was evening. We booked our flight, and the next day I went to the United States.”
Eva Garraux, a senior ACU women’s swimmer from Aywaille, Belgium, was among those who texted Kashyrina a message of encouragement before her overseas trek. Though her own journey to America didn’t involve the emotions of war, Garraux wanted to make sure Kashyrina had someone to relate with, even before her feet touched U.S. soil.
Kashyrina and Garraux share a birthday, Oct. 19, and became inseparable friends after going through their first season of competition together. They were roommates last year.
“Kateryna, for me, she’s like really my little sister,” said Garraux, who is 21. “She has a really big heart for people. But in the water, she’s really competitive. … It’s good to practice with her too, because she has really good mental strength.”
Garraux used that competitive fire, qualifying for the national meet as well, in three events: 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly.
Arizona Christian University women’s swimmer Kateryna Kashyrina, middle, wins the 500 freestyle race and takes the winner’s podium with assistant coach Rob Oldach, left, and coach Brad Heringm. (Photo courtesy of Brad Hering)
Other than spending winter breaks together, Garraux said Kashyrina visited her Belgium home last summer. She said the plan is to do something similar this upcoming summer.
The last barrier was one that every college athlete has to pass: eligibility.
Keith Baker, ACU associate athletic director of compliance, said Kashyrina’s sister was “instrumental” in providing initial information needed for NAIA clearance. After meeting every checkpoint, Kashyrina was good to go.
Before Baker joined ACU’s staff in 2020, he had spent 34 years at Grand Canyon University, but never witnessed an international student’s transition of this magnitude.
“That makes you feel good that she’s getting an opportunity to be relieved of some of that stress, pressure, difficulty, but it’s still got to be very difficult knowing that you have family and friends that are still (in Ukraine),” Baker said.
Kashyrina has not buried the past behind her, as she and Hering reflected on it over a Christmas dinner last year. It was hard not to, as her grandmother, who remained in Ukraine, passed away last summer from what Kashyrina called a broken heart. Kashyrina and her mother had visited her exactly two weeks before her death.
Her grandmother had heard that her son, Kashyrina’s mother’s younger brother, had received a letter that he had to serve in the war. Kashyrina explained her grandmother’s passing saved her uncle’s life in a way, as he was no longer obligated to fight so he could deal with the loss.
With all this emotional baggage, Kashyrina became a first-time national qualifier on Feb. 21. Her grades followed suit, earning a second NAIA Scholar-Athlete award.
On the fourth and final day of the NAIA national championship, Kashyrina earned All-American status in the 400-freestyle relay alongside Garraux, Abbey Lair and Claire Eilers – their 3:32.03 mark was also a program record. Though 11th place in the 800-freestyle relay wasn’t enough for a second All-America nod, Kashyrina helped her squad to another program-best time of 7:55.23.
“What the devil meant for evil, absolute evil, God turned into good,” Hering said. “I would think PTSD would be there. I don’t know what happened, but she either swam it out in the pool or the joy of the Lord overtook it.
“She’s my Ukrainian daughter.”
Besides competing one final season, Kashyrina said she wants to stay in the U.S., earn a master’s degree and possibly go to law school. Whatever the future holds, she wants to eventually return to Ukraine to help her people.
One day the prayers of Kashyrina and Hering may be answered in the form of a free Ukraine. But for now, the forever-changed life of one now-18-year-old girl is enough.
“I found again joy in my life, hope, because of (Hering),” Kashyrina said. “Sometimes I just feel like my life is crazy.”