Luke Herbert '24 Recruiting Profile

Every time I step up to a diving block I realize that I have an opportunity to set a personal best, and nothing in my life has presented a more rewarding set of physical and mental challenges than swimming. Whether I am competing for my high school team or my club team, I feel that I am a vital member of a special community, surrounded by my best friends, full of pride. Perhaps most of all, swimming is fun and healthy, and nothing makes me smile more than waking up at 4 am to drive to the pool. 

I have always pushed myself to achieve the next level of any activity from competing in martial arts to winning the AERC endurance horse racing Junior Southwest Championship. My personal discipline extends beyond athletics and rests firmly in my academic focus. I maintain a 3.8 GPA and strive towards a 4.0 each semester. Competing in college sports requires a commitment to academic excellence, and I plan to make my university team proud in and out of the pool.

As I am writing this personal statement I keep asking myself why swimming? Why college? Why now? And what has led me to this point in my life? In reflecting on these questions, I keep coming back to how privileged I feel to have been raised by a family that values cultural diversity and the lessons learned from travelling around the world, often based around SCUBA diving. SCUBA diving has taken me on waterborne adventures to Cuba, Thailand, Mexico & Hawaii. It has taught me how to follow directions, how to learn technical skills, how to get along with people from different backgrounds on small boats for days at a time, and how to embrace learning new things in environments very different than what I am used to. SCUBA diving has taught me how to fit in to unique situations, how to help people, to plan, how to recognize when to be proactive, and it has helped me mature into a team player when sometimes, everything is on the line. 

As my junior year in high school is coming to and end, I am swimming twice a day, five days a week, totally focused on dropping my times. I get exited every time a club meet approaches, and when I look left, and right, on the block, I know that this is where I belong.