Noah Siegmeier '20 Recruiting Profile

My journey with swimming started when I was 6 years old. I hadn't done any sports before that and I was terrified of the water. The pool was so much bigger than I was and I was terrified of putting my face in the water because I didn't want to drown. After my first practice, I told both my parents that I didn't want to swim. Then they said, "Well, tough luck." Probably the best thing they ever told me, in hindsight. It took 3 seasons of swimming only summer season to transition to year-round. I swam my first winter season in 3rd grade and hated it. All I wanted to do was go home after school and do homework or practice my Taekwondo.  I liked the idea of being in a Dobok in the winter and in the pool during the summer. But after I quit Taekwondo before I got my black belt, I felt like swimming was the only thing I had left to give me an outlet for all the extra energy I had in me. So I decided to stick with it. 

Best decision of my life. 

That's when my swimming started to become my favorite activity. I kept fiddling around with all different kinds of strokes and events. Eventually, I found my groove being a backstroker and distance freestyler (with a little bit of sprinting and I.M. to compliment). My strokes started improving improved exponentially in middle school to the point where I was the backstroker on relays and getting state Medals in Backstroke and Distance events. And I've been keeping that up in my high school years. 

As for my sportsmanship, I've always loved being able to shake my competitor's hands after races, whether they beat me or not, and tell them that it was fun to race against them.  I've always been very competitive, but I always like to treat people with respect and care. My teammates and I always loved hanging out together because we spent a lot of time suffering through practices and swimming fast at meets together. We also just really liked hanging out with each other when we weren't in the pool. I eventually started getting so involved with the team as a whole that I would begin acting like an older brother figure to the younger kids on the team. They liked talking with the big kid who was "fast" to them, and I loved being able to listen to them and mentor them. This eventually led to me becoming an assistant coach on the team along with my former girlfriend (the kids called us the mom and dad of the team which we thought was funny).

Overall, the reason why I love swimming is that I love every part of it. Training, racing, being a small part of a large team and learning life lessons from the sport. I'm not ready by any means to give any of those up yet, which is why I would love to swim in college.