HS Swimming to college

I loved High School Swimming. I loved it for the same reason I loved Recreational Swimming. It became less about the time and more about racing somebody. I believe that this is the reason why so many swimmers have best times during the high school season, they love the race.

I trained the bare minimum of practices in accordance to the rules with my high school team. Other than that I trained with the Club Team. I stopped going to recreational team practices when I was 11. People want to know why the RCA kids were so fast in the recreational league... because we continued to train toward goals that exceeded way beyond Recreational League or High School. The only reason I went to recreational practice was to coach.

Swimming has changed, and the significance of things have also changed. Recreational Swimming never meant much at all, but High School swimming has lost some of its importance in regards to college. It has become more of a spotlight for swimmers to show off to a bigger population that doesn't pay attention to USA Swimming. It is fun to show off all the work you have put in, and High School swimming provides that stage.

College swimming is not a revenue sport for universities. It is a deficit program to colleges, but it provides an opportunity for swimmers to continue to compete at a high level, and for the sport that they committed to help them get an education or add to the college experience (more on this later).

Hypothetically, if I were a college coach, I would not spend my budgeted money or time to travel to a random high school championship. The creation of the national database has put into every college recruiters hands the ability to see the best times across the US. So, it wouldn't mean anything to me as a recruiter on whether the swimmer swam high school or not.

College Swimming has been seen as a way to get a scholarship. My brother describes the college scholarship as the "holy grail." So is there more to swimming in college than the scholarship? Yes! Intramural Sports are big at many colleges, as it adds to the experience of college. Participating at the college level on a true college team provides a similar experience, but with even more meaning and significance. Swimming on a Division 1 college team is not easy, and not all of the swimmers on the team are on scholarship. Most swim on the team for the experience of college swimming. This is done at every level of college sports.

Things have changed. I still think High School Swimming serves a purpose (mainly social), but it is by no means necessary as it may have been in the past to continue on to college swimming.