Reading 33
Elite Swimmers Early Risers
While most students are still asleep, these athletes are making a splash
in their sport
September 8, 2005
Waking up at 3:15 every morning to get to swim practice on time helped Sarah Bateman become a
better reader.
Sarah Broadley became so accustomed to waking up at 4:30 a.m. for practice, that she occasionally
jumped out of bed on Saturday morning, only to find a vacant breakfast table.
The two Sarahs, championship swimmers and rising sophomores at Lake Brantley and Olympia, epitomize
their sport's early risers.
Time management, two-a-day practices and sometimes evenings without television become daily
realities for high school swimmers.
"I've been doing this for so long," defending state backstroke champ Peter Hughes of Winter Park said,
"it's like asking 'Dude, do you take coffee in the morning?' "
He sometimes gets in such a hurry he forgets to dress completely, and by the end of the day, he feels
the effects of waking early. But the bottom line: "If I really want to push myself, I can do anything," he
said.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Dr. Phillips' David Syrett sleeps with his cell phone under his
pillow. The phone becomes his alarm clock, and he responds quickly to the instrument's vibrations at
4:30 a.m.
"I put it under my pillow and turn it up," Syrett said. "I'm a light sleeper. I just jump out of bed and
shoot off to practice."
Spruce Creek swimmer Matt Norton, a 6-foot-7 future Olympic hopeful, has set a goal of hitting the
sack by 9:30 on nights before swim practice. That's because he sets his alarm clock on those days for
5:20 a.m.
When he played basketball, Norton didn't worry about early-morning practices. Now his mom packs a
breakfast and juice, so he needs only 10 minutes in the morning to jump into his Speedo and then into his
pickup truckby 5:30.
He lives about 10 minutes from the Port Orange YMCA, where workouts start at 5:45 on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
Winter Springs' Christina Morgan sets her alarm clock for 4:45 a.m. in order to travel to the YMCA
Wellness Center on Red Bug Road three times a week for weight training with her dad.
Morgan tests her mettle and determination because she is the lone early riser on her team.
Alex Mitchell, a sophomore at Trinity Prep says the early practices also serve as a team bonding. "I'm
pretty good about not sleeping through my alarm," Mitchell said, "but I ask my parents to make sure
because when you are late, it's a team thing, and we all get extra work."
Teammate Amy Brubaker, a former club swimmer in her first year of high school, says she usually sets
two alarms. "Then my sister comes in and yells at me," she said.
These are just a handful of the many swimmers, including double state champ Alex Forbes of Lyman, who
have learned the discipline of early to bed, early to rise makes these teens healthy and wise.
Some of the swimmers understand the early waking hours are easier when more than one member of
the family is involved. For Alex, that means little brother Alan, now a Lyman freshman and a major
talent in his own right.
When Bateman, now an honors courses student at Lake Brantley, was an age-group swimmer, she learned
to study in the car to and from early practices.
"I started to read a lot because of the time I spent commuting," she said. "It was an added benefit. It
helped my grades and helped me to score in the 99th percentile on FCAT."
Bateman's dilemma, shared by swimmers such as Osceola High's Ashten Ackerman, is when to go to bed,
some as early sometimes as 8 p.m. Yet most of the swimmers say they don't miss video games or TV
watching if the occasion calls for it.
"I make sure that I get to bed at a decent time the night before," said Ackerman, Osceola's swimmer
of the year in 2004.
Why the early efforts?
"If you want to just be a high school level swimmer, that's fine," Spruce Creek Coach Steve Lochte,
father of Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, said.
"But if you're going to reach anything else beyond that, your competition is training nine to 11 workouts a
week year-round, so you've got to be training with them," he said.
Bateman admits to occasionally having a hard time staying awake for her first class -- gifted chemistry.
But her chemistry kicks in as the day goes along, and she is ready for her second swimming practice.
"And when you do it long enough, you become disciplined to getting up and getting going," Broadley said. "I
still shake my head when I get up and put on my suit and then realize it's Saturday. I actually appreciate
what it teaches you because it will help me when I join the real world."