School: Souderton
Water Polo, Swimming
Favorite athlete: Michael Phelps
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Meeting a lot of new people”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “Trying to do a flip off the diving board and landing flat on my back.”
Future plans: “I am attending George Mason University to study Public Administration, and someday I plan to go into local or state government.”
Words to live by: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle
One goal before turning 30: “I hope to be a successful politician.”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I’m a certified Lifeguard and Water Safety Instructor.”
By Alex Frazier
Compassion is an attribute lacking in many teenagers.
Not Dan Yocum.
The Souderton senior has it in spades.
Whether it’s helping a teammate with autism, volunteering at his church, attending Souderton Borough meetings, relating with his teachers or doing what needs to be done for his swim team, Yocum puts others first.
As Souderton swim coach Todd Bauer said, “He’s a team-first kind of guy. He cares about the success of the team and the guys on the team, sometimes to a fault. Sometimes he doesn’t worry about himself, and he only worries about the team. Once in a while, I have to remind him to get working or make up some laps or whatever it might be because he’s concerned about what everybody else is doing and keeping everybody on task.”
When he’s not looking out for everybody else, Yocum is a good swimmer in his own right. He has been a district qualifier for three years. His best event is the 500 freestyle, but he also swims the 200 free and the breaststroke.
He actually started in age-group swimming as a breaststroker. When he arrived in high school, he briefly tried the individual medley, but his other strokes weren’t strong enough. Bauer was a state place winner in the 500 and 200, so it isn’t surprising that Yocum gravitated to those events.
“He excels in the 500,” said Bauer. “He works very hard because he’s in the district group, and it’s a demanding regimen.”
“Only a crazy person could have chosen it,” said Yocum. “It’s such a long event, but I like it.”
In addition to swimming, Yocum also played water polo in the fall.
When Bauer, a Souderton alum himself, took over the program from Rob Faccenda four years ago, Yocum was just starting. Bauer had asked former Souderton coach Jim Schulte if he would like his son J.D., who is autistic, to swim for him. It turned out to a great arrangement.
Especially because Yocum immediately took J.D. under his wing.
“Every time we would get out of school early for a meet, Dan would go find J.D.,” said Bauer. “He’d help him in the locker room, help him get changed, make sure he had his bag packed and ready to go.”
“I did a lot of work with J.D.,” said Yocum. “I kind of helped him to survive on the team. I made sure he was incorporated in the team.”
Yocum’s interest in people has also led him into politics. In 2008, he was nominated as a student representative to the Souderton Borough Council.
Before then, Yocum’s career goal was to become a lawyer, but now he wants to pursue a job in local government—borough manager, state rep, that sort of thing. He has no ambitions to run for national offices.
As a student representative to Souderton Borough, he attends two or three meetings a week. He is a member of the pool planning committee, the traffic calming committee and the Souderton summer swim team planning committee.
One day this week all three committees meet at the same time.
Yocum estimates that he has spent over 100 hours working with the borough.
“I’m as involved as possible,” he said. “I do really enjoy it.”
His interest in politics has led him to George Mason University, where he will major in public administration.
There were several Division Two and Three colleges looking at him for swimming, but he turned them down. Since George Mason is a Division One program, Yocum decided he wouldn’t swim at the college level.
“If it was a Division Three school, I definitely would (swim),” he said, “but Division One is such a big commitment.”
That doesn’t mean he won’t pursue something in the water.
“George Mason does have an underwater hockey team,” he said.
Say what? Underwater hockey?
“It’s miniature hockey sticks at the bottom of the pool,” he explained.
In the deep end.
“I’ve never actually played it, but I’ve talked to some of the players from George Mason, and I’ve watched them play. It’s really neat,” he said. “It sounds like a ridiculous sport. I’ve played water polo, too, so it seems like its similar only under the water. You play with a snorkel, and I’ve been swimming long enough that I can hold my breath at least a decent amount of time.”
And he thought you had to be crazy to swim the 500.
Not surprisingly, Yocum is an excellent student. He takes all honors and advanced placement courses.
“He’s a great student,” said Bauer. “A lot of my colleagues talk to me about how respectful he is and polite and such a nice guy. I teach math and he’ll probably be the first one to tell you that’s not his academic strength, but I still hear from the members of my department how hard he works. He still gets good grades. It’s just not his strength.”
As if swimming, schoolwork and politics don’t take up enough of his time, Yocum also plays the tuba in the school orchestra.
Yocum started his music career in fourth grade playing the drums. Thankfully for his parents’ sake, he switched to the tuba in sixth grade. Playing the tuba may pay dividends in underwater hockey, too.
He has also played trombone in the jazz band.
Yocum’s list of activities doesn’t end there.
He’s done a lot of volunteer work with special needs kids, like Schulte. Every year he does an autism walk on J.D.’s team, and he has been in the Partners Program working with special education kids.
“I like to help people, and that was a good way to do it” he said, “but I have no interest in pursuing that as a career.”
He also performs community service with Zwingli United Church of Christ. For the past five or six years, he’s gone to Philadelphia on Martin Luther King Day to help the needy. This year he served food in a homeless shelter and helped paint an elementary school.
Yocum admits that his social life is limited by all his interests, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Being compassionate is No. 1.
