Michael Fernandez '21 Recruiting Profile

My name is Michael Fernandez, I swim for West Boca Raton High School and Saint Andrews Swim Club. I've been swimming competitively since I was five years old. Swimming has taught me so much, in and out of the pool. In the pool, what it means to work hard, not just for your self, but for your team. Out of the pool, character, which is very important to me, without it my story would end here.

I was diagnosed with a few disabilities at a young age, one of them having ADD. That's not the best thing to go through when you're that young in school, kids don't understand and can be quite mean. I felt at that time there's only two ways this could turn out, be a class clown, or work hard to over come this. My parents got me  tutors to work with me all summer long, five days a week three hours a day from eight years old to present day.

That to me is how you work hard, how you build character. One time I was interviewed by our local paper and asked, what so far in your young life are you most proud of, is it all the medals and records you've broken. My answer was no, what I'm most proud of is not letting a disability define who I am.

If I could do one thing in life, I  would like to be a roll model for kids with similar disabilities.

Michael