Reece McLean '22 Recruiting Profile

 They say "practice makes perfect", but that isn't true. Swim is never settling for anything less than your best, that means Growth. It's always about learning or doing more to better yourself and the abilities you've been blessed to have.  Continuing to work on balancing academics, and athletics is a big aspiration of mine in college. In high school its easy to balance a majority of things but in college the stakes are higher.  Setting goals throughout my time in athletics and academics, to push myself to be better and more able to fulfill my part as a working member of this community. To me a team isn't just a group of people or even just a group of friends, it's a family.  Improving myself in order to improve the wellness of others is something that's important to me. Being a potential nursing major really opens your eyes to the amount of people you can help and push to be better.  Continuing to practice commitment and drive throughout my time on the team I feel is key for the betterment of myself as well as those around me.  You're only as good as the company you keep, I plan on surrounding myself with others who will push me to be better than I am, hoping I do the same for them, not only for our times, but in our personal lives. The coaching you receive is only as good as the effort you put in. Being coachable is a core strength of mine, when moving from Tennessee to Utah my technique and stroke increased dramatically due to the criticism I was given the first couple weeks on my new team. Not only did my technique get better but my ability to be a team player also increased. People typically serotype swim as a selfish sport since it's more individualized, but when I realized swim is more than that I started seeing the people I swam with less as competition and more as people who cared for me and wanted to push me to be better. Going back to reinforcing the topic of the swim community being a family. What makes me different from other swimmers is my ability to be comfortable in new environments. Since moving from Tennessee to Utah I've swam for 4 different swim teams, and in every team I've been able to learn and grow from not only the coaching I received, but the people I swam with.  Along with that, I don't like settling for the minimal GPA. I like to keep up with my classes and do the best I can to pass and if that means putting academics over athletics in order to do the best I can.  Overcoming adversity has become a big part of my life that I work towards everyday. At the age of 6 the separation of my parents was hard, but shortly after moving at 13 the death of a parent sent me into a mindset I had to work myself out of.  Adversity on any level is hard to overcome band I hope to help others work through their adversity when the time comes whether in or out of the pool.  With that, I feel I belong in the pool and with the team.  I would be very grateful for the opportunity to swim in college as well as bring my skills and experience to the team!