Sophia Conner '23 Recruiting Profile

To quote Michael Scott from The Office “I’m not superstitious, I’m just a little stitious.”  This is one of the reasons that I rarely say out loud that my dream, my passion, and the ruin of my hair and skin due to chlorine over exposure is to swim competitively in college…while pursuing my OTHER big dream of being a pediatric dentist.  Two big dreams require me to be extremely dedicated and extremely focused, which swimming has helped me with for both.

Swimming has been my passion for 9+ years and has taught me more life lessons than I could have imagined…of course there are the expected ones:  Dedication.  Motivation.  Hard Work.  But the ones that I pull from most often in my daily life are less obvious:

•  Confidence – If I can stand on a block, scared to death, in my bathing suit in front of hundreds of people…I can raise my hand in class and give my opinion – even when it’s not the popular opinion.
• Balance – I have good days and bad days and so does everyone else.  A bad swim (or grade) doesn’t make you a loser and a good swim (or grade) doesn’t make you a winner.  My favorite sweatshirt is from age group sectionals, and it says “be strong when you are weak. Brave when you are scared, and humble when you are victorious.”
• Teamwork – My favorite part of every meet, hands down, is the relays.  I love the camaraderie and seeing myself and my teammates push each other farther and faster than we thought we could go. My teammates and I have taught each other to support one another and accept our results, without placing individual blame on one person. I’ve learned how to be an individual contributor on a successful team.
• Getting Back in the Pool – Not living up to my own very high standards is a huge struggle for me, in the pool and in school.  Not performing at the level I want to is tough, but I’ve learned to focus on what went wrong, not blame others (including teachers and coaches!) and work on a plan to fix it
• Swimming has been a part of me for as long as I remember. It’s the reason I’m so diligent with deadlines. It’s the reason why I’m never late for anything. It’s the reason why I’m so conscious of every choice I make. I have always dreamed of swimming in the Olympics, but as I got older I developed other interests. Yet, I never loved anything else enough to replace swimming, even if my plan wasn’t to go pro in it. My swim team is my second family. Everyone I’ve talked to who has swam in college says that the community and the team is like a family, and more than anything that is what I want as I transition into the real world. I love the competition and the satisfaction that swimming brings me and I’m not ready to give that up, but I also want to experience the familial aspect that a team has to offer.