Local with Lisa: Piedmont Swim Team College Commitments

Town Hall Meeting

Piedmont Swim Team members and parents came together at the Piedmont Center for the Arts to hear from three high school seniors. Simon Lins, Paige Arnold and Ryan Stokes had different journeys, but they all have one thing in common. They committed to swim in college.

“It’s been a pleasure to get to know them and their parents,” head coach Stefan Bill told the packed room.

Piedmont Swim Team members and parents came together to hear from 3 high school seniors about committing to swim in college.

Role for PST Parents

All three Piedmont Swimmers were joined on stage by their parents to share how they encouraged them to attend practice without being pushy. Amy Aubrecht, mother of Kate Aubrecht who started swimming for Amherst College kicked off the discussion.

“If there’s any tricks. It was bribing with food, right? Like parents are bringing hot chocolate or donuts.”

Piedmont Swim Team's Paige Arnold commits to Amherst College

Piedmont Swim Team’s Paige Arnold agreed. “My dad, every morning before morning practice gets up and makes my lunch, which is really nice and breakfast before early morning practices.”

And when these swimmers wanted to quit, this is how they pulled out of their slump.

National Ranked Piedmont Swimmer Simon Lins commits to UVA

“In 6th grade I was fed up and dreading practice, but I had a conversation with my dad he told me to give it one more year and if I still don’t like it I can quit,” Simon Lins told his Piedmont teammates. “The next year I fell in love with it.”

Ryan Stokes added, “To just sit on the couch and miss practice, especially if you have a lot of schoolwork or something like that is really easy. But just for me, just telling myself you’ve gone this far, just one more practice.”

PST's Ryan Stokes commits to The College of Wooster

Coaches Coach, Parents Parent, Swimmers Swim.

Parents and swimmers agreed. The parents’ role in supporting their swimmer is simple. “Coaches coach, parents parent, swimmers swim.” Amy Aubrecht explained.

All of this support has given these kids the opportunity to swim in college. Simon is the first from PST in at least the last ten years to be recruited by a D1 school.

College Recruitment Explained

“Every single school in the country with a D1 program was talking to me,” Simon said. “It was really overwhelming.”

Simon was recruited by Cal, Harvard, University of Texas, Yale, Brown and Columbia to name a few but picked UVA . While his swim times were important, that wasn’t the only thing schools cared about.

“They are making an investment in you, not your times. They make an investment in your character and who you are striving to be.”

D1 vs D3

Paige committed to swim at Amherst College and Ryan at The College of Wooster . They say the process to swim at a D3 school is different. While D1 schools recruit swimmers, for D3 schools swimmers are the ones who initiate it. Amy Aubrecht shared her daughter’s experience getting into Amherst.

Former Piedmont Swimmer Kate Aubrecht now swims for Amherst College

“You have to have the academics because there is no athletic scholarship.”

College coaches have a certain number of swimmers they can support, which can help you get accepted into the school. Piedmont Swim Team’s Head Coach, Stefan talked about his own conversations with college recruiters from around the country. “The Columbia men’s head coach essentially said, I’m going to put him at the top of the list.”