LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Jefferson County Public Schools swimmers prove you don’t need a team to be the best, you just need hard work.
Swimmers Adrian Harrison and Kyrece Wilcox got their starts in the sport in different ways.
“I started swimming in 6th grade when I came to Shawnee Middle School,” Adrian Harrison, 11th grader at The Academy @ Shawnee said.
“Every summer I go out to a pool, and play with my friends, play tag in the pool and when I told them I would swim they tried to not play with me because they said I was too fast,” Kyrece Wilcox, 10th grader at Western High School said.
The two have more in common than you might think. They’re both the only members on their school swim teams and have been for quite a while.
Harrison, who is now a junior, has been the lone member of the Shawnee swim team since he was a freshman and Wilcox, a sophomore, has been the only member of the Western swim team for the last two years. A bit of information that comes as a surprise to their classmates.
“Nobody really swims, no one is on the swim team, what do you do?” Harrison said. “They don’t even know we have a swim team,” Wilcox said.
Some might think it’s a challenge when it comes to diving into the pool.
“I like practicing by myself because I can just go faster,” Wilcox said.
Western High’s Wilcox and Shawnee’s Harrison are making the best out of the situation.
“I just focus on myself, try to get better, working, practicing all my strokes, and dives, turns,” Harrison said.
The work in the water is just the beginning for the two extraordinary swimmers.
“He was not a student I needed to check on inside the classroom or an athlete I needed to check on,” Elisabeth Wydotis, Shawnee High and Middle School swim coach said. “He wants to go to college. He wants to get scholarships. He wants to be a successful human being and a successful student just in general.”
The swimmers both have big plans for their future. Harrison currently has a 4.0 GPA and hopes to continue swimming in college, but his dream is to become a pilot.
“It’s helping me to motivate myself even out of the pool to stay focused and keep pushing myself to be where I want to be in life,” Harrison said.
Even as only a sophomore, Wilcox has big dreams as well. He hopes to swim at the next level in college at the University of Louisville.
“Say I swim, I can start my own business and look out for my family,” Wilcox said.
Swimming solo is just helping the swimmers achieve those dreams.