Former Central Mountain HS Swimmer Gives His Perspective on First Year College Experience

The Jersey Shore Swim Blog had a chance to ask former Central Mountain standout swimmer, Tyler Sheets, about his experience so far with the Westminster College (New Wilmington, PA) swim team.

1.      What are you studying?  And why?  I am currently studying business administration with a concentration in marketing. I chose this major for a unique reason. I have always been interested in the automotive industry but have never had the creativity or imagination to actually be hands on with cars. So instead I thought to deal with the sales aspect of the business. I am very interested in working with and for a car company after I graduate. If I change my mind about working in the auto industry my business administration major is so broad it will give me many employment opportunities after graduation.

2.      Why did you decide to swim in college? 

A major factor of why I wanted to swim in college was due to the fact that I have been swimming for so long I wasn’t quite ready to give it up yet.  I saw I had untapped potential which could only be brought forward by collegiate level swimming. Believe it or not, another reason I continued swimming was to help me with time management. Swimming forces me to plan out my day and keeps me on a schedule. The last major factor which played a big part in me swimming at the collegiate level was being part of a team. As soon as I walked on to campus I had instant friends and quickly became close to the other swimmers.

3.      So why did you choose Westminster College?  Westminster College was never on my radar to be honest. I thought I would be attending school in Reading PA at a similar sized college named Albright. But my Uncle David urged me to check out Westminster as he saw I would be a good fit for the program. Although he wasn’t the only one who urged me, my other uncle is an alumni of Westminster who also swam on the team. After my initial tour I knew this was the right college for me. I later did an overnight with the team and had a very good experience that “sealed the deal”. Swimming wasn’t the only factor, business is a very strong major here and is in the top three majors at Westminster. Overall I wanted a place to swim but also receive a quality education as well.

4.      This is your first year swimming college.  What has been the biggest difference between swimming high school and college?  The biggest change from High school swimming to College swimming would have to be practicing. Swimming at the collegiate level is very time consuming and strenuous on your body. I practice generally twice a day and have a meet every Saturday. I can swim anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 yards a day, as well as lift, and cardio workouts. It is a lot of work which is all part of the big picture which is our end of the year championship meet. Another practice change is I no longer train for every event. We are very specialized during practice and are put into groups which we train with. For example I am in the sprint group and lift solely for freestyle. This type of training really gets you to focus on events which you excel at, leaving out the ones which I struggle with.

5.      What was the most significant change or adjustment YOU had to make with this transition?  I think the most significant adjustment for me was learning to live with someone other than my family and being dependent on myself no one else. At school there is no one forcing me to do anything. I have to take the initiative myself and get things done.  For example no one tells me to get up and go to class (except my coach). If I wanted to skip it I could. I will admit that having so much freedom is very fun but also is an eye opener on what years after college will be like. Like I stated earlier I don’t live with my family anymore instead I have a roommate which I am very happy with. Over the six months which I have been in school he has become one of my best friends on campus and I can always count on him in most situations. The fact in which we are such great friends/roommates really did help the “living on my own” transition a lot smoother.

6.      How have you done in the first half of the season?  Overall my first half of my season was great. Although I didn’t always have that outlook the whole time. To be honest I was actually wondering why I was doing so badly. My first half of the season was filled with very hard training which my body was not used to at all. This caused me to have mediocre times, in the 50 I was doing a 24.5 on average and in the 100 I was doing a 55.6. However, as our mid-season invitational approached, my times started to drop in tiny amounts. Then finally once I swam at our invitational, I hit new personal bests on everything I swam. A 23.1 in the fifty a 52.2 in the 100 and a 1.05.9 in the 100 breast. This meet boosted my confidence and reinforced my positivity. Another unique thing about these times was the team was not anywhere near fully tapered just rested.

Tyler Sheets (front and center) with teammates in training van.

7.      Most college swim teams go to a warm place for their winter break training trip.  Where did you go?  Westminster swim team takes a training trip every year for about ten days this trip is usually to Florida. Although once every four years the team travels to California to continue tough training. This year was coincidently that lucky year. We traveled to San Diego for nine days full of training, hard work, and some fun as well.

8.      What was a typical day during the winter break training trip?  A typical day was a 2 hour morning practice followed by a dryland/lifting workout then anywhere from a 2 to 6 hour break. Following that break was another 2 hour practice then the rest of the night was free. On your free time you could do whatever interested you. For example one day a group of us decided to surf while others decided to spend some time at the local amusement park.  One day we only had one practice from 7-9 and the rest of the day was free to explore. On that day off a big group of us decided to go to the San Diego Zoo while others rented mopeds and drove around sightseeing. Another very cool opportunity we had was to train with the Navy SEALS. These SEALS put us through a very tough workout which consisted of pushups in the ocean, carrying logs, or an exercise called sea turtles which from the name can probably be self-explanatory. Our last adventure that the team had was a tri-meet in Los Angeles. We swam against Occidental College, which was a local private college from LA and a team from Oregon. We ended up winning both meets and were later treated to a surprise meal at the Hard Rock Café in Hollywood. This training trip was not only a blast but was very hard work which benefited me and the rest of the team immensely. 

Tyler getting to ride the waves in the Pacific Ocean