Swimming, Track & Field
Favorite athlete: Caleb Dressel
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory in swimming was having a Thanksgiving celebration as a team and feeling like a family.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: The most embarrassing thing I have ever done at a swim meet was dance to the music in my headphones without knowing it and my teammates got a video of it.
Music on playlist: I listen to a lot of rap, mainly by Travis Scott, 21 Savage, and Yeat
Future plans: I plan on attending West Chester University where I will study business and will also continue swimming for the next 4 years.
Words to live by: “Never let success go to your head and never let failure get to your heart.”
One goal before turning 30: Before I turn 30, I want to be completely financially free.
One thing people don’t know about me: I also compete in spring and summer track where I throw shot-put and discus
By GORDON GLANTZ
At face value, swimming is among the most individualized sports in existence.
But not in the heart and soul of Council Rock North tri-captain Connor Williams, who will be going to states as part of two relay teams – 200 freestyle and the 400 freestyle – and is a second alternate an individual event, that being the 50 freestyle.
In typical fashion, he shook off the disappointment of not making the cut in the 50 free after going to states in that event last year, and he will be looking to cheer on teammates Sean Brush and Sebastian Vradinsky in their individual events.
It is just who he is as both a person and student-athlete, who will be continuing his swimming career with Division II potentate West Chester.
“He is one of our captains this year,” said Johnson. “One of the things that he really does well is connect with the other swimmers, especially the younger swimmers. He immediately takes them under his wing.”
This was most evident during the recent postseason, where anxiety can often run high, especially for newbies.
“You could see it at our recent district meet,” said Johnson. “For some of the kids, it was their first experience. He just didn’t focus on his race. He was using his experience of having been there before to help them have a good meet. It was cool watching that.
“He leads by example. They all really look up to him.”
That’s why an official position of leadership seemed like a perfect fit for Williams, who took his captaincy seriously.
“I try my best to be a good role model for the other guys on the team,” he said. “Some people, they let it get into their head really easily if they have a bad race. I just try my best to keep everybody calm. It’s not end of the world if you have a bad race.”
The other two captains - Luciano Dorenzo and Jack Costello - happen to be among his closest friends. Along with the co-captains of girls’ team, Violet Schroeder and Sophie Bahn, they have built bonding activities outside of the water.
“When it gets closer to a big championship meet, it does turn into a more individual sport,” said Williams. “Pretty much the entire season before that, though, you have all the dual meets and almost three months of training.
“You are all going through these hard practices together. You don’t win without the rest of your team. You all have to work together. It’s just really important everybody stays close. There are no arguments between team members. Everybody is pretty close on our team.
“We try to do a lot of stuff outside of the pool, too, and that keeps our connection close. There’s me and two other guy captains and there are two girl captains. All five of us, we plan events for the team and everybody just kind of shows up.”
Building Up Steam
Another important place outside of the natatorium for Williams and his teammates has been the weight room, where he has completely transformed his body from that of a naturally spindly freshman into a muscled up senior.
“The maturation for a boy over a four-year period - it’s just amazing how much muscle they put on,” said Johnson, in his 28th year at his alma mater. “He loves it. I think he really just enjoys the comradery and being in the weight room with the guys, just lifting and doing all of that.”
And the results for Williams, who is also a thrower on the track team, have been encouraging.
“It helped a lot,” he said. “Since my freshman year, I’m almost four seconds faster in the 50 freestyle. That’s almost unheard of.”
They are also side benefits of the weight room.
“I think it’s very important,” said Williams. “These practices that we do, they’re not easy. We do nine practices a week.
“So, I think the weight training helps a lot with the team bonding, too. In the pool, we don’t have a lot of time to talk to each other or to just mess around. It’s still serious because we’re lifting, but we can also socialize when we’re lifting, and we get to talk to the girls’ team. The coaches are having fun with us, too.”
State Bound
As for the upcoming state meet, the middle child of Kimberly and Christopher Williams believes all the hard work of his relay teams will build to a crescendo at the right time.
“I’m actually pretty confident right now,” said Williams. “I think our 200 free relay had a lot of room to improve. I think we are going to work toward that in these next two weeks before states. I think we can drop about two seconds.”
Despite his optimism, the serious student who does as much homework in school as possible, will remember the words of wisdom his teammate, Brush, imparted two years back: “Never let success go to your head and never let failure get to your heart.”
In other words, it is never as good as it seems or as bad as it seems.
“I have had some high moments where I have done some great things, but you’re always going to have some bad meets and bad swims,” said Williams. “You can’t let that get to you.
“It puts me into a good mental place, where I don’t get too upset with myself if I have a bad race. I can always come back and I can always do better next time.”
He has taken this approaching into the throwing circle during the spring track season after his dad, a collegiate thrower, encouraged him to give it a try.
Williams, with personal coaching from his father, missed districts by a mere foot last year in discus and was about 5-6 feet off in the shot put.
“For a three-year thrower, that’s pretty good,” said the 6-3, 205-pounder who has also done gymnastics and basketball in his athletic career. “I know people who have been throwing for their entire lives who don’t make districts or states.
“I only really get to train in the spring. I do some practices in the summer just to keep my technique going, but I don’t have any competitions in the summer.”
Ram Tough
The West Chester swim program has more than 30 PSAC titles to its name, and Williams didn’t really need to think too hard about where he was going to continue his swimming career after meeting with Steve “Coach Steve” Mazurek.
A selling point, beyond the tradition of success, was that “Coach Steve,” who has Bucks County roots at Neshaminy, was a lot like his high school coach in demeanor.
It turns out that Johnson is a West Chester alum, and Williams is one of several Council Rock North swimmers to have gone there over the years.
“It played into my decision a lot,” said Williams. “Their head coach, ‘Coach Steve,’ is almost an exact copy of my high school coach.”
For a high school coach, there is no greater compliment than to know your athletes are looking for a similar approach at the college level.
“(Connor) said, ‘I feel like I’m going to be coached by you for another four years,’” said Johnson. “His takeaway was that it was a similar personality. He didn’t look at too many other places. From the very first trip, he liked what he heard.”
That was confirmed by Williams, who will be joined by Brush on the swim team and plans to get an associates degree in business and then study exercise science.
The long term aim of is to open up a gym with younger brother, Cooper, who is a sophomore on the Council Rock North swim and track teams (older sister, Katie, is about to graduate from Florida State).
The more immediate focus for Williams will be on swimming for the Rams.
“I feel like with the right technique and under the right conditions, I can get a lot better than I am right now,” he said. “I can definitely drop a lot of my times and get faster.
“I had a couple of other schools in mind but, the minute I got to West Chester, I just loved the school. I loved the team, and I loved the coaches. Everything about it was just great.”
In terms of improving, Johnson would not be surprised if Williams does big things at West Chester.
“I told him, a bunch of times, that he is just getting started,” said Johnson. “We have taken him far, but I feel like there is more there that they can give him over the next four-year period at West Chester. We are going to be hearing the results of what he does. I’m not going to be surprised at what he does because I know there is more that they can get out of him.”
How does Johnson know this? For one, he knows the type of work ethic that Williams will be bringing to the next level.
“He has consistently dropped his times while being a leader throughout the years that he has been here,” said Johnson. “From the very beginning, when he got a varsity letter, he was doing all the things necessary to contribute to the team from the start.
“He is one of those people who is naturally eager to find out what it is that he needs to do in order to improve. He wants to know what’s happening and what is necessary to make himself faster. He is very coachable in that respect.”
Rock North will be losing a strong senior class of standouts, each of whom have left their mark, and Williams will be truly missed.
“He is one of those people who is naturally eager to find out what it is that he needs to do in order to improve,” said Johnson. “He wants to know what’s happening and what is necessary to make himself faster. He is very coachable in that respect.”
