Mike DeSimone Makes Waves in Swimming and Beyond!
SALISBURY, MD--Mike DeSimone grew up in a family of athletes and swimmers. Now, the University of Salisbury,
Maryland Sophomore (class of ‘26) is forging his own path as a collegiate-level athlete.
Mike sat down for an exclusive interview with NJnewjersey.com & NYnewsyork.com which is Powered by Yellow Pages Online to discuss the transition from high school to college sports, his lifeguarding career, and his rigorous training schedule.
Mike is a sprinter. He specializes in 50-freestyle, 100-freestyle, and 100 backstrokes. He also participates in all of the relays. He also swims in specialized conferences, like the NJAC conference, alongside thirteen other schools.
While swimming may seem like a solitary sport, Mike was quick to point out that teamwork is essential for a successful swim team. “I would consider it two teams, one family. It’s a co-ed sport; there’s a girl's team and a guy’s team, and then everyone comes together. It’s also an individual sport like track or golf. It depends on how you perform. But at the same time, it is a team sport. How you perform depends on the team’s score as a whole. It’s individual, but it’s also team-oriented,” Mike explained.
“You have to have a good connection with teammates, especially on relays,” he added. He also emphasized the importance of trusting one's teammates when final times are calculated down to the millisecond.
“You have to rely on your teammate to do their best. You could get a personal best for a relay split, but your teammate could add three seconds onto their time, and you could lose the relay,” Mike said.
The University of Salisbury is a Division 3 athletic school, which enables DeSimone to find a balance between his class schedule and swimming. “When I was getting looked at by Division One and a couple of Division Two schools, I definitely gravitated toward Division Three because it’s a nicer balance between school and athletics.”
Making the leap from high school to college-level athletics also proved to be a big adjustment. “My high school team wasn’t very serious about swimming. A lot of our funding for our school went to basketball and football. We never got the attention we wanted. A lot of people did swimming as an extra winter sport,” Mike recalled.
Mike attended Cranford High School in Cranford, NJ. He played tennis and ran track before switching his focus to swimming. He was the swim team captain during his Senior year.
“Coming into college was a lot different because those were the people who did take it seriously before. Everyone was really into it and intense with their training. It was a very big adjustment coming from high school to college. These are the people that made it,” Mike added.
An estimated one in every thirteen high school athletes continues to play sports in college.
The training schedule at Salisbury is rigorous and demanding. DeSimone trains six days a week. The swim team’s winter break is cut short by two to three weeks so they can train. “That consists [of] about two practices per day, six days a week. There are also a lot of lifts during the offseason. I lift about six times a week.”
Mike also lifeguards during the offseason. He’s been lifeguarding in Belmar, NJ, for almost four years and will take over as a senior lifeguard this upcoming summer.
While keeping up with practice and class still proved to be difficult, Mike, who majors in business management, is figuring out how to make it work. “After your first semester of being a student-athlete, you get a feel for it, and it kind of just comes naturally. You figure things out as you go.”
Though swimming is a time-consuming sport, Mike treasures the relationships he has built with his teammates inside and outside of the pool. “You grow together as a class and a team. You’re hanging out six hours a day. You’re with them all the time. The team and the community, that’s probably my favorite part.”
See picture below of Mike using the "NO NICK"
CLICK ON THE LINK TO PURCHASE THE "NO NICK" www.nonickproducts.ca
This sponsored press story goes to support student athlete Mike DeSimone