Lily Bradford '21 Recruiting Profile

I started swimming when I was six years old, and I've loved the sport ever since. It has always been my dream to swim in college, and I can't imagine what my life would be like without it. Swimming has taught me the value of hard work paying off. I am goal-oriented and driven, and I'm always working towards hitting a time standard or qualifying for a new meet. My freshman year, my coach and I were focused on qualifying for the State Championship meet individually. My sophomore year, our goal was to qualify for NCSA Spring Junior Nationals. That same year, our town was demolished by a hurricane. We lost power, were out of school for a month, and our pool was destroyed. We lost cellular service and every building in town was damaged. Through all of this, the harshest reality was that we didn't know when we would be back in the pool. For a month, we had to drive three hours to a neighboring town with a pool, and we practiced in hopes that our high school season wasn't over. It sounds ridiculous, but we continued to practice because the pool provided an escape. Swimming gave us a sense of normalcy. We pushed through this adversity, and I was beyond excited to qualify for NCSA Spring Junior Nationals. This taught me the value of hard work and perseverance. 

 I have continued my work ethic, and my junior year we managed to hit the goal of placing 3rd at State championships. Since then, I've poured my heart and soul into my training. I've put in the hard work, and I trained through the entire season. I was ready to taper and go into the NCSA Spring Junior Nationals, but unfortunately the meet was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. I was disappointed, but now I'm ready to go into the long course season and give it my all. I work hard in the classroom as well, and I'm looking for a college that can challenge me academically as well as athletically.