Connor Kirby '26 Recruiting Profile

My name is Connor Kirby, and I am currently a Sophomore at Bayard Rustin High School in West Chester, PA. When I was six years old, I wanted to pass the swimming test to be able to swim in the deep end of the pool at summer camp. To be able to do that, my parents arranged for one-on-one lessons with a coach named Colleen Sweeney. Colleen had been a swimmer at Penn State, and she didn’t just teach me how to swim; she taught me to compete. One day she approached my parents and told them that I should be swimming for a club team. My family was unfamiliar with club swimming, but Colleen helped us find the right team. Unfortunately, Colleen passed away unexpectedly two years after I joined my swim club. It devastated the local swimming community, and the many adults and kids Colleen had trained and mentored. My mother laminated her memorial mass card, and I keep it in my swim bag as a reminder about commitment.

Many of my teammates in other sports who were not swimmers would say swimming was not a real sport. I used to think, “you wouldn’t make it through a week of our practices,” but I would brush off their comments. At times it would get to me because, as we all know, swimming can be a lonely sport, especially when we go through periods where we aren’t hitting the times we need. But what got me through those times, in addition to the discipline and hard work, was a quote from Socrates "It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable." I live by this quote, which pushes me to build my body and mind to accomplish the fastest times possible in the pool.  

The best thing to happen to my swimming experience is being on my varsity high school team and joining the Upper Main Line YMCA (UMLY) club team. The mentoring I have received from my coaches, senior captains, and some of the older swimmers has been incredible. In my previous club swimming experience, it was more about the individual than the team - swimmers swim to hit their goals. On those club teams, I only swam in a handful of relay races as most of the time I was focused on individual events. For the high school team and at UMLY, we swim to put points on the board for the team. I’m proud to have placed in individual events and of having been a member of A Relay Teams for 200 Medley Relay, 200 Free Relay, and 400 Free Relay.

Academically, I apply the same level of effort in school as in swimming and water polo.  My middle school grades and test scores enabled me to gain acceptance at several Preparatory schools that I applied to in Pennsylvania.  I am taking several Honors and AP-level classes.  In my freshman year I achieved a 3.85 GPA. My goal is to be as competitive academically as I am athletically, and to compete at the highest level at the best College or University I can be accepted at.  Ultimately, I would like to study business and law.