During his sophomore year at Seymour High School, Nolan Speer said he was out of shape, so he decided he wanted to participate in a sport.

“I looked up online what sport was the hardest,” he said. “Gymnastics came up as No. 1, but I really didn’t want to do gymnastics. I picked the second choice, which was swimming, and that was to get me in shape.”

Since joining the team, he said he has changed a lot physically, and he feels better and stronger.

“It has definitely improved me,” he said. “It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

Speer said he has changed events during his time in the program, going from sprints his sophomore and junior years to the 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly this winter. He also swims the butterfly fly in the 200-yard medley relay and a leg in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

“I kind of like the 500 free because I feel like there’s a lot more room for improvement,” Speer said. “My coach said to take it easy for the first 300, and then go faster and build up, but our best 500 swimmer just tries to sprint it all. I tried that one time. It really didn’t work for me. The key is pacing yourself and focusing on technique. You want to make good turns.”

Speer said he likes the challenge of swimming the 100-yard butterfly.

“I enjoy it because it is a lot harder than your normal races, the 50 free and the 100 free,” he said. “It just seems like it is one of the harder events, for me at least.”

Speer said he likes being in the first relay and final relay.

“It’s definitely fun being in the last relay,” he said. “We’ve won meets before just by taking a point away from the other team. Swim meets can be very close, and they can come down to one relay.”

He said warmups before the meets are important.

“You want to focus on everything to do with the stroke and the races that you are doing in that meet,” he said. “You want to focus on warming up the muscles, on technique and getting it done right.”

During school, the swimmers practice beginning at 6 a.m. Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays.

“It does take quite a bit of dedication,” Speer said. “If you’re dedicated to the sport, then it really doesn’t take too much. It’s definitely hard doing it as many times as we do. I wake up around 4:50.”

He said the boys do P90X Mondays and weights Wednesdays, and they swim Friday and Saturday mornings.

Speer said the holiday break practices are long and hard.

“Winter break sort of builds up over time and then drops off in January,” he said. “We build up from preseason to December. Over winter break is our hardest time. We go about three and a half hours in the pool every day of the break except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. We only get a couple days off. It’s difficult.”

Speer looks forward to the taper leading up to the sectional.

“Your body gets a lot stronger during taper because of recovery,” he said. “The taper is probably the most fun. It’s when you do all the cool stuff with your hair. You start meeting up and eating out more. The swim team is a lot closer during taper than we are during winter break.”

In swimming, he said it’s important to maintain a strong mental approach.

“The mental part of athletics is the most important part,” he said. “It gets you up in the morning. It gets you motivated. It makes you work harder than you’ve done before. Whether you’re super-athletic physically, to me, it doesn’t really matter as long as you improve. Improvement really comes through mental strength.”

He has enjoyed attending Seymour High School.

“I really love this high school,” he said. “I love the classes. There is a lot of opportunity here. The teachers are super-nice. They know what they are talking about. They’re really good at explaining things. A lot of good memories have been made, and there are a lot more to make.”

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Name: Nolan Speer

High school: Seymour

Parents: Nathan Speer and Katrina Walburn

Siblings: Faithe, Sam and Maxwell

Sport: Swimming, three years

Plans after high school: Attend Ivy Tech Community College

Favorite food: Sushi

Favorite TV show: "Breaking Bad"

Favorite musician: Cat Stevens

Favorite movie: "The Grey"

Favorite athlete: Benny "The Jet" Urquidez

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