Swimming
Favorite athlete: Terrell Suggs
Favorite team: Baltimore Ravens
Favorite memory competing in sports: Breaking 5 minutes in the 500 freestyle
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When my suit fell down to my ankles after I dove in to lead off a relay at a SWAC meet.
Music on iPod: Chiddy Bang, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West
Future plans: Major in Management Studies and minor in Economics at Gettysburg College
Words to live by: ‘It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” –Vince Lombardi
One goal before turning 30: Work for a professional sports team’s front office.
One thing people don’t know about me: I had the opportunity to race Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines.
Ian Scullion was a sprinter-freestyler when he joined the Central Bucks South swimming program as a freshman. Coach Jeff Lake took one look at his lanky frame and knew immediately he had inherited a potential standout distance swimmer.
“We said, ‘Ian, you really have the body type for it, and you have the stroke for it. I bet you’re going to end up moving towards distance swimming,’” Lake recalled.
Lake bet correctly.
By the middle of his sophomore year, Scullion – who measures in at 6-5 - was swimming the 200 and 500. He has never looked back.
“He was reluctant to do the longer distances early on,” Lake said. “I think pretty much every freshman is reluctant to swim the 500. He was like, ‘I don’t think so,’ but you build them up to it.
“Once they realize – ‘Hey, I can swim all these yards, and I can actually do it.’ Now he loves it, now he’s looking forward to it.”
Scullion, who grew up competing with the SouthWest Aquatic Club, admits that Lake wasn’t the first person to suggest he might be a natural as a distance swimmer.
“The more that I talked to coaches they would always tell me I would make a great distance swimmer because my stroke is so long,” he said. “And that if I kept with it and developed better stamina, it would just progress.
“My freshman year at South I was pretty much a sprinter all year, but I think at the end of the year, he put me in the 500, and I went a 5:23, and he said, ‘You’re a distance swimmer from now on.’
“From that point on, he put me in more and more distance events at more and more meets, and it stuck with me. It was definitely something to get adjusted to just because I’m always used to getting in and out in the 50 and 100. After all these years, I’ve gotten more and more used to it.”
Scullion has not only gotten used to it. He has excelled. Last year, he posted a time of 4:58 in the 500 at the District One AAA meet.
“That was actually probably one of the most exciting moments I have had as a swimmer,” Scullion said. “Going into districts, I knew that all I wanted to do was break five minutes. When I saw it, I was really excited because all the hard work paid off in the end.”
It was a performance that confirmed Scullion belonged with the district’s top swimmers.
“He really took off his junior year,” Lake said. “He really sees and understands and believes it now.”
Scullion opened this season by picking up a win the 1,000 at the CB South Holiday Distance Meet during Christmas break.
“We had a practice that morning, and I was feeling kind of bad – I was real tired,” he said. “Coach (Kevin) Murray, who is the head of the girls’ team, was coaching us that day, and he was just saying how I just needed to lengthen my stroke a little bit and I would be okay.
“That’s what I tried to focus on, and I think it helped a lot.”
Scullion is hardly one-dimensional in the pool. He also swims the 200 IM.
“Honestly, he’s gotten pretty good to the point where actually this Friday he will be in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM in our meet against Quakertown, and he’s hoping to make it to districts in the 200 IM,” Lake said. “He’s gotten to the point where he came in as a 50 and 100 freestyler, and now he can do all four distances in the freestyle, and he can also do the IM. He’s worked hard at becoming more well rounded.”
Scullion admits he enjoys swimming the different strokes.
“We do a lot of freestyle, so when we do an IM set it’s actually fun because it’s a change of pace from what I’ve been doing pretty much all week,” he said. “It’s always fun to get a mix of strokes.”
Scullion’s contributions don’t begin and end in the pool. Last year, he took the initiative to organize and order the practice suits for the team, and he designed this year’s swimsuits. He is a captain and undisputed leader of the Titans’ squad.
“He’s the best leader I have,” Lake said. “He leads by example by what he does in the pool, and just the little things like cleaning up and organizing things. He’s just a really, really nice kid.”
Scullion got his first taste of competitive swimming when he was six years old, following in the footsteps of his older sister. He also tried soccer and baseball, but by the time he was in sixth grade, Scullion had made a commitment to swimming.
“I realized it was probably the one I was best at,” he said. “And I liked it a lot more than the other sports, so I just went with it.
“I always like the water – I’m a big fan of swimming.”
Scullion acknowledges that it is the competitiveness that he enjoys most. That competitiveness was apparent recently when – behind Scullion’s anchor leg – the Titans’ 400 free relay edged Neshaminy, turning in the team’s best time of the season.
“It was an awesome race,” Lake said. “I almost wish the meet came down to it.
“He ended up pulling the relay back and out-touching Neshaminy. It was really cool.”
“That was a fantastic race,” Scullion said. “I always love anchoring those types of races. That’s really what I swim for.”
Next year, Scullion will continue his swimming career at Gettysburg.
“I definitely would like to immediately start and put some points up,” he said. “I know distance is one area where they are lacking if they have any weaknesses.
“That was the one thing when looking into colleges – if a team needed a 500 or 1000 swimmer, I would be that guy. I would like to place in the top 10 in the conference my first year.”
An honors student, Scullion will major in Management Studies with a minor in economics, working toward his singular goal of one day working in the front office of a professional football team.
“I’m a huge sports fan, especially football, and that’s one thing I really, really want to do,” he said. “When I was around 10 or 11, I started to get into football, and surprisingly, I’m not a Philadelphia Eagles fan, but I’m a Baltimore Ravens fan.”
Scullion came by his interest in the Ravens honestly – his aunt lives in Frederick, Md., and his uncle is a huge fan of the Orioles and Ravens.
“I always followed them a little bit more than the Eagles and Phillies, and I just kept with it and became a huge fan,” Scullion said.
For now, however, football is on the back burner while Scullion works toward his goal of breaking the CB South school record of 4:49 in the 500.
“I’m down to about the five-minute flat (mark), maybe a 4:58 untapered,” he said. “I feel confident I will be able to get it by districts.”
Whether he breaks the record of not, Scullion will be remembered for more than just his prowess in the pool.
“He’s a good student,” Lake said. “He was raised well by his parents. He’s a great leader, and he’s a great, great kid.”
