A Tribute to College Swimming
College swimming championship season is upon us! I love this time of the college swimming season. We get to watch swimmers take their mark and show everyone watching what hard work does- pay off.
I swam D1 at Fairfield University for 4 years from 2016-2020. Those 4 years were the best years of my life. Not only did I improve as a swimmer, but I made lifelong friends and found out what it meant to swim for something bigger than myself. That team became my second family, my home away from home. I have so many stories from being a part of a record-breaking team but that’s for a different post.
I graduated college in 2020 and was fortunate to be asked to write a letter to the Fairfield community as I was getting ready to leave. In that letter I detailed the team’s journey from middle of the pack to top tier in the MAAC conference, the new attitude that was found when we had a major coaching switch, and my own success as a collegiate swimmer, but still to this day the main thing I took away from those 4 years were the teammates I had that became my best friends and the coaches that became my mentors. Here’s a little excerpt from the letter I wrote:
“As a member of this team, I've had my own personal successes. I've broken school records as an individual and on a relay, I've been MAAC Champion in both individual events and in relays, but more importantly, I've seen the success of a team rise from the bottom to the top and being a part of that will always be what I remember most.
I'm in a unique situation. I'm not finished competitively swimming like my senior classmates, but I will never find another team like my teammates at Fairfield. I've learned how to be a better swimmer, a better teammate, and a better person because of the people at Fairfield. I've learned what it takes to be successful by working hard and believing in yourself. I've learned that you shouldn't give up if something starts getting hard, you should push harder and harder until you eventually break through into the success that you know you're capable of. I've learned that with the right attitude you can achieve goals that you never knew were possible before. I owe all of my growth as a person to Fairfield.”
You can read the whole letter here: https://fairfieldstags.com/news/2020/5/8/womens-swimming-diving-letters-to-the-herd-colleen-young-20.aspx
Camaraderie is a major factor in the success of a team. Swimming is often portrayed as an individual sport, but I’ve had my best swims when I knew that my team was cheering me on and there to support me. When a team can come together with the same goal in mind, nothing is impossible. My freshman year at Fairfield we placed 6th at Conference. My sophomore year we won again and my junior and senior year, you guessed it, we won. A big attribute to the team success was our coach, but once again that’s a post for a different time because Anthony Bruno is one hell of a guy.
My main point here is that college swimming changed my life. I would be nowhere near the person I am today without those teammates and coaches pushing me every day at practice, being there through the highs and the lows, and believing in something we never thought was possible. There’s so much more I can say about my time at Fairfield, but for now I’ll leave you with this; if you’re thinking about doing a sport in college, DO IT. It will be one of the best decisions you will ever make in your life.