Le Moyne College Stories

Hey everyone, It’s just me, Henry, checking in from campus as I prepare to head to Florida for a week of intensive training with the collegiate swim team here at Le Moyne. As a college swimmer/ athlete I returned early for Winter Training on the 29th and will be headed to Florida on January 4th. Hope you all are having/had a wonderful break from school, I know mine’s going pretty well. Winter break allows me to decompress and enjoy the time i have with my family, it also gives me a well deserved break from all activities I am involved in on campus: Student Programming Board, Student Government and, probably the most time consuming, College swimming. I’ll fill you all in on the other extracurriculars later, but if you want to hear about my experience as a college athlete, keep reading! In high school I would never really have considered myself an athlete, not until I found the sport that I love, swimming. I began swimming in my sophomore year of high school and slowly, I mean very slowly, became better and better. It began as an inkling: “i think i should try swimming.” I ran competitively at my middle and high school on the cross country and track teams, but never got into it and decided to stop my sophomore year. I liked the team atmosphere that a sport gave me, but also competing as an individual against myself and the clock, swimming seemed the only other outlet for that. With the help of my coaches, the team, and of course my family, swimming became something I had grown passionate for. After only two years of swimming competitively, I became a top scorer and provided depth for my varsity team. By my senior year, I had received an academic and athletic scholarship from my “section” and qualified to go to the NYS Championship meet. It became something I enjoyed and thought, “hey, I love this enough to continue it past high school.” Collegiate swimming has provided me with an outlet for all of my energy, as well as for my competitive nature. Collegiate swimming has taught me time management, I wouldn’t say I had the best study habits going into my freshman year of college, but the sport gave me a schedule to my day: classes, practice, dinner, study, which allowed me to plan out my time well. I can happily say I haven’t pulled an all-nighter, but I won’t sugarcoat things, I have stayed up working on assignments until 3 or 4 in the morning, knowing i had morning practice two hours later at 6:30 am, class beginning at 8:30 after that, and another practice at 4pm. Lastly, collegiate swimming has introduced me to some of my closest friends on campus, my team. We struggle through practices together, eat dinner together, and compete together, and I wouldn’t want to spend more of my time with any other group of people. So, if any of you have questions about swimming, college athletics, time management, or other clubs and activities, just let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them, or point you to someone that will help you out. Make sure you follow me on twitter: @Henry_LMC and all the other Social Media Ambassadors, we’ll keep you updated with what goes on. Until next time, Enjoy Break and Happy New Year!!! Contributed by Henry Eisloeffel '16