Ethan Porter '18 Recruiting Profile

I have been swimming competitively since I was 10.  I remembered my first year swimming I received the most improved award.  As I watched the then MVP receive his award I made it goal to be the MVP and MVP I was the next year, the year after that, and so on.  I also set another goal for myself which is yet to be met, and that is to swim in the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

Swimming is something that I consider all mine.  I chose to continue to swim after that first season, I chose to dedicate myself to improving, and I continually push myself to do better as a swimmer.  I feel that swimming has taught me so much more than just fundamentals, but swimming has molded my entire being.  I have learned discipline as an athlete and as a person.  Swimming has taught me to go after what I want, make things happen for myself, and follow through with what I say I am or can do. 

My swimming came to an abrupt stop my sophomore year in high school when I broke my collarbone.  I was gearing up for an exciting season of Fall Swim, making plans to attend all the meets possible, and be the best ever when all of the sudden I was down.  I was devastated.  My season was shot and so, I thought, were my hopes and dreams.  After months of battling with the insurance my mother was finally able to convince them to do surgery on my collarbone.  I was up and running just in time for Spring swim with my high school team and by some miracle swimming just as good if not better. 

I think through this experience I learned what it truly means to overcome even life’s hardest hurdles.  I was sure I would never swim again, and if I did, it wouldn’t be at the caliber I had before.  See for me, swimming is not something I do because I am told to or just because I am good at it, swimming is something I have a deep passion for.  The feeling of competing and knowing I won because I put forth the effort required to be a winner is what drives my soul.  The moment when I thought no matter what I did I’d never feel that victory again was heartbreaking.  I did not give up though, and today I am here swimming, competing, and again winning. 

I am in my Junior year at Cordova High School and college is just around the corner.  I am an honors student who is attentive to my education just as much as I am my swimming.  I believe my education and my educational effort is equally as important in my future success as my accomplishments as a swimmer.  I also believe in community outreach.  I spend most of my free time volunteering with for my church either working in the café, working with the younger children through the brotherhood program, or going on mission trips through my church’s global outreach program.

For all of this, I will say that, I am in fact the perfect athletic candidate for any educational institution.  I plan on attending a four-year college, swimming with the team, and furthering myself not only as an athlete and student but also as a person!