a humble beginning
All the 5-year-old towhead wanted to do was splash around in the deep end with his friends. Problem was, he couldn’t swim, but his parents offered a practical solution. Take lessons, they told him. Get comfortable in the water. Then, you can join all the other kids in the pool.
Seemed simple enough, thought a very young Stuart Ferguson, so he enrolled in a class where he’d learn the basics.
“But I was really scared,” he recalled with a smile almost 11 years later. “I just wanted to go home. “It was a very humble beginning.”
What the 16-year-old Collegiate sophomore has achieved since that summer day at the Southampton Recreation Association has been anything but humble although Ferguson, pleasant to a fault, has remained very much so.
A year-round swimmer with Poseidon since he was 9, Ferguson has rung up an impressive string of accomplishments that have him on the fast track to high-level stardom in his specialty, the breaststroke.
A very brief sampling:
He’s a multiple state age-group record holder.
He has short course lifetime bests of 56.17 over 100 yards and 2:04.54 over 200.
He ranked second in the nation in the 15-16 age group at both 100 and 200 meters with times of 1:04.72 and 2:21.91, respectively, at the end of the 2006 long course season.
He’s the current Virginia Independent Schools champ in the 100 yard breaststroke (a school record 58.06, which broke a 23-year-old VIS mark and earned him All-American honors) and the 200 individual medley (1:57.02) and is a favorite to defend his titles in the state meet this weekend.
As a member of the USA Swimming National Junior Team, he competed last month in the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Maui, swam a personal best 1:04.38 in the 100 meter breaststroke, placed sixth in the finals in 1:04.56, and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials.
“It was amazing to represent the United States,” he said. “It really opened my eyes to how far I can go in swimming when I saw international competition for the first time.”
Ferguson’s success is the result of prodigious talent, of course, but many, many hours of sweat and toil as well. He works out with Poseidon nine times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he hits the pool from 4:50 a.m. until 6:20 a.m. Each weekday afternoon, he swims from 4-7. Saturday morning, it’s 6:30-9:30.
“I swim. I do homework. I come to school,” he said, once again flashing that familiar smile. I work ahead on weekends. I definitely use my study halls.”
“I’ve never actually added up the hours. It’s too depressing.”
Training sessions vary. One time, he does breaststroke sprints. Another time, he swims freestyle distance sets. Other times, he focuses on technique drills. Sometimes, he does sets that include each of the four strokes.
“His work ethic is unbelievable,” said Mike Stott, Collegiate’s swim coach who has Ferguson’s services in most school competitions. “He understands the cerebral as well as physical elements of stroke mechanics and is quick to make changes when necessary.”
So what is it that motivates Ferguson to spend just short of 24 hours per week in the water?
It’s the competition. It’s the confidence gained from surpassing goals and the lessons learned from the few times he’s struggled to meet them. It’s the camaraderie he shares with his teammates even as he stands alone on the starting block or swims countless laps with nothing but the black line down the center of the lane for company.
“Swimming is more than a sport for me,” he said. “I’ve learned time management and how to deal with adversity and injury. I’ve learned determination. All this can be applied to every walk of life.”
