The Athens Drive swim team celebrated a successful 2015-2016 season as they advanced to the regional finals. A large contributor to this success is senior Tyler Silver, who has recently committed to Florida University with a full swimming scholarship this past February. Silver has been swimming here at Athens since his freshman year in 2012. His career goes back to when he was just five years old, swimming for the Raleigh Marlins.
Swimming has always been very close to Silver’s heart, ever since he was a kid.
“Achieving your goals is what I like most about [swimming], to come into practice motivated with goals on your mind,” said Silver.
The Athens Drive swim team achieved long-time goals as a school this past season, being named third place in the conference, as well as 3rd place in the regionals. The recognition did not end there; Coach Shane Barry received the honor of Coach Of The Year.
“I was the Men’s coach of the year because of the outstanding male swimmers we have around here, I would say it’s justification for hard work,” said Barry.
Silver appreciates the team in which he was able to share this success with his teammates.
“The relationships that you build are a lot stronger, you hang out with teammates a whole lot more, club meets are over a whole weekend,” said Silver.
Silver will soon be a part of University of Florida’s Class of 2020, come this June. Silver has made it clear that he will continue to swim in his college days. Silver specializes in backstroke swim and in sprint butterfly. Silver is excited to experience all that is in store for him at University of Florida. To him, there is something special about the school.
“The atmosphere there is different, the swim team is very successful, they won SEC conference the past four years, so I’m looking forward to being part of a championship team,” said Silver.
Silver will experience saying goodbye to his teammates at Athens Drive, and heading out to Florida. However, he is not worried about the swim team he will leave behind. He is very optimistic about sophomore Zach Brown, who finished one-tenth of a second behind olympian Ryan Lochte.