Valley's Myers Makes Splash in First High School Swimming Season
There was Valley junior Chris Myers drying off one day after a Cougar Aquatic Team swimming practice at the Haddam-Killingworth pool when the Cougars' swim team was about to get in the water. Chris's envious eye watched as HK jumped in as one, leaving him with daydreams of being a part of his own high school's swimming team.
But the simple fact remained that Valley doesn't field a swim squad, meaning Chris's dream of one day donning the Warriors' red and black was going to remain just that: a dream. However, that one day after practice Chris decided he wanted to make his dream a reality as he spoke with HK Coach Ross Hansen about linking up with the Cougars and being Valley's team-of-one. Hansen obliged, and this year for the first time, Chris was a high school swimmer.
"It has been a great experience," Chris says. "I was able to reach out and make new friends and get a bunch of races in racing other schools. While it is a little difficult separating representing Valley from HK, it is definitely a fun experience for me swimming with them, even though it's not quite the same as being on a team."
A swimmer since he was 12, Chris has fully submerged himself in the sport. Starting on his local recreational team at the Old Saybrook Racquet Club, Chris moved on to swim at the Valley Shore YMCA for two years before joining the Cougar Aquatic Team. Currently, Chris is swimming for both Valley and CAT with both teams' championship schedules in full swing. Qualifying for seven of eight events for the Class S state meet, Chris is seeded seventh in both the 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, the two events in which he will represent the Warriors. He is also readying himself for the USA Swimming postseason, where he will compete in Age Groups, followed by Sectionals in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, March 24.
"Coming into states, my goal is to get All-State in each of the events and top three in Class S," says Chris. "I am fairly confident in my ability to do it; I'm around my best time maybe a little bit faster right now and I've put in the work effort to get to All-State."
According to Chris, he swims everyday, using a high level of self-motivation to constantly get better.
"First of all, I'm a pretty competitive person and in swimming it is pretty easy to gauge yourself; you are either fast or you aren't," he says. "It's easier to gauge what I'm doing in racing just by looking at the clock to see if I'm going faster than ever before. If you stay motivated, you actually see the results and you will be dropping times over the course of the season if you are working hard."
Yet despite Chris' dedication to his chosen sport, the school halls are dominated by basketball, football, and soccer players with not a ton of attention being paid to what Chris is doing without the support of Warriors' teammates.
"I'm a self-motivated person and just knowing I have to do it is all the real motivation I need," says Chris.
Possibly more impressive than his own drive to succeed in the water is the buoyancy which Chris keeps the rest of his life afloat. Chris he is a member of the School Interact Club, the National Honor Society, and is maintaining an A-plus average in three AP courses: literature, statistics, and US History. He does all of this while swimming multiple hours a day and lifting weights at home.
"This season, with adding in some high school practices, there is no way I could keep up my education and swimming at the same time any better than I did," says Chris.
Handling both with such success is what he'll need to continue if he is to reach his ultimate goal of becoming a Division I swimmer. Chris says he has spoken with Williams College already, but has also been in contact with some Ivy League schools about the possibility of joining their programs.
Says Chris: "When you are swimming as often as I do it hasn't felt like I [have only been swimming for five years]. But as I've looked back at what I've done each season, I would say it's pretty cool to have gone from where I started out to hopefully where I will be in the next few years."