Izabella Sparrow '22 Recruiting Profile

I am 6ft tall with a wingspan of 184cm and wear a size 9 shoe.  I am compassionate and empathetic person as well as dedicated, especially to my swimming.

Throughout my high school career, I have swum for the 1^st team and have been the strongest Freestyler in the team. I was a 2020 and 2021 Sports Woman of the Year Finalist.  I also played first team water polo as wing and hole-man and represented the Eastern Gauteng Regional team in the 2019 IPT Tournament.  As I am a sprinter at heart, I decided to focus on my swimming and drop water polo in my final year of high school.  I received full colours for swimming in Grade 10 and have been re-awarded full colours for 3 consecutive years.  Last year I received my school Sports Honours Colours for swimming.  I was also very proud to be the 2021 first team swimming captain.  I have graduated from Parktown High School for Girls and am now the Assistant Coach for the swimming team for the '22 first season.

In 2020 I joined Crusaders Club and started my journey towards swimming for a varsity team. 

Due to the global pandemic and our country’s strict lockdown, competitive training and swimming has been very limited.  In the few months of competing, I have qualified for South African Senior Nationals in Central Gauteng. The highlight of my swimming career was when I broke my personal record for 50 & 100 Free and placed first at the South African Regional Competition last year winning 2 golds.  

I am internally motivated, extremely focused and driven towards success in my swimming. I am a strong team player and thrive on comradery.

My ultimate goal is to swim for an American Collegiate team. I am really impressed with the facilities and focus based training.  I know I can really develop as a swimmer in this environment, and I am excited about being able to contribute to the strong team spirit experienced in the US.  I strongly believe that attending University will match my athletic and academic ambitions.  I am most interested in Psychology, Education and Food Sciences. 

It would be privilege to carry on with my improvement and overall performance with the great facilities, coaching and opportunities America has to offer.   Thank you, Bella.