Connor Brady Swimming, Canfield

By the time the Brady family realized their 3-year-old son Connor could swim, he was already doing backflips off his grandparents’ diving board. It’s no wonder the Canfield junior feels so comfortable in the pool.

Brady earned the first two individual medals of his career this past season at the Division II state swim meet in Canton. He finished second in the 100-yard butterfly and seventh in the 100 back to help the Cardinals earn a seventh-place team finish.

“I absolutely love water,” Brady said. “Water gets me through everything. You have a bad day, you swim; you’re having problems, you swim; water has been my relaxation tool for the longest time.”

Next year, his role not only in the water, but outside of it as well, will have to change if the Cardinals want to send yet another relay team to Canton. They’ve had at least one qualify for the state meet every year since 2005, but next season’s will have just one familiar face. Brady was the lone underclassman on the back-to-back state runner-up 200 freestyle relay team and will have to do it with three new bodies next year.

“We’d love to carry on the tradition,” said Brady, “but we don’t know who’s gonna fill the gaps yet.”

As for the individual events, Brady has a love/hate relationship with his favorite. It’s something he said, as a swimmer, you have to constantly battle.

“The 100 fly would I guess be my favorite to swim in a race,” the junior said. “It’s my least favorite to practice because it is one of the hardest strokes, but it’s probably one of my favorites to swim and that’s because I can swim it [well].”

The biggest goals Brady has for his senior season: finish better than he did this year and have his soon-to-be freshman brother earn a spot at the state meet with him.

Two Bradys would be better than one.