Ida Mary Tilford '14 Recruiting Profile

I would like to introduce myself and let you know a bit of further information about me. I am approximately 5'7" and at this time weight 106.6 lbs. So far in my swimming career the most important accomplishments for me have been making it to the Provincial Championships with my club team and this year qualifying for OFSSAA which is our high school provincial swimming championships being one of the first two girls in our schools history to make it this far. I am very energetic almost all the time and I am very interpersonal person and love being around other people. I would like to stay in the east coast region for my education that way I am not an awful long way from home and my parents may get the chance to attend some of my competitions, as they have supported me through all of this with their only reward being the ability to watch me do well at competions for all the work and money they have invested to allow me to follow this dream I have had since I was a young girl at swimming lessons. When I first started swimming lessons there was a Parolympic swimmer that would practice after lessons were done and I would make my mother or father sit on deck with me and just watch him do lap after lap until one day I told my dad "I want to go to the Olympics, just like Brad". My parents never questioned my dream but have allowed me to live it every day that I get to swim. The size of the school that I chose to attend is not as important as how I fit as a person in that school's atmosphere both for my education and how I will grow as a person as I swim and attend classes there. I would like to study social sciences looking in the direction of working with children.  I will look for a school that offers classes that can point me in this direction, but also allows me the flexibility to pick up classes on coaching so that when I am done school I can continue to give back to the sport that I love. For the past two summers I have volunteered at a Salvation Army Summer Camp in my home town as a camp leader because I love being around children and helping them develop and blossom into young adults as I have been guided and allowed to. I am now also a lifeguard at the local YMCA and also teach swimming to younger children. The last thing that you might possibly need to know about me is I will be looking for a school and coach that can push me the way I push myself and my present coach pushes me to become the best person and swimmer I can possibly be and then we will see where that can possibly take me on this journey of life.  As of July 15, 2013 I had to have a jaw corrective surgery and because of the recovery time involved have decided to work and possibly take some child and youth worker classes at a local college.  This will allow my jaw time to heal and give me another year of training with my club team to get back in top shape after not being able to swim for the next two to three months.  I finished high school as of June 2013 and will not be looking at attending a school for my education and swimming in the 2014/2015 year.  Thanks for looking at my profile.  I would just like to thank everyone that views my profile and to let you know that in the spring of 2013 it was discovered that I suffer from dyslexia, now we have not had any follow up to this and that is part of the reason for the low math marks as this really shows up in my math work.

Mary