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IN THE SWIM
Photo
Canfield High School senior Connor Brady poses for a photo in the Youngstown State University pool.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Canfield senior Connor Brady is the type of guy who puffs out his chest when he’s getting photographed — “You’ve got to flex a little bit, right?” — and strikes a “Ladies Man” pose for his underwater shots.
So, yeah, he’s comfortable in front of a camera.
Brady is also the type of guy who combines confidence (he once told this reporter to watch out for something big before one of Canfield’s relay races at the state meet, then helped the Cardinals win a silver medal) with honesty (he admits he doesn’t shower every day in the winter because he spends two hours a day in chlorinated water) and comedy (“I feel like if you get too serious, you start to hate it — especially in this sport”).
So, yeah, he’s comfortable in front of a tape recorder.
Brady also pulls down a 3.2 grade point average — although he got a B in anatomy and physiology, even though his girlfriend’s mom was his teacher — so, yeah, he’s comfortable in a classroom, too.
But if Brady has made one thing clear over the last 31/2 years, it’s that there’s one place where he’s most comfortable: water.
“When I’m in water, I’m in my element,” he said. “I’d much rather be in water than anywhere else.”
Brady first showed his potential when he was a 3-year-old doing backflips off his grandparents’ diving board and was already one of the school’s best swimmers by the time he was a freshman, advancing to the state meet in two individual events and one relay.
He made it to Canton in four events as a sophomore — he helped the Cardinals to two top-four finishes in the relays — and was even better last February, earning first team All-Ohio in four events with silver medals in the 100-yard butterfly and the 200 freestyle relay (which also took second in 2013). He also placed seventh in the 100 backstroke and fifth in the 400 freestyle relay.
“He’s got a talent for knowing how to make himself go fast in the water,” Canfield coach Jane Heaven said. “He just has a natural feel.”
He also has a powerful dolphin kick — an underwater kicking motion that looks familiar to anyone who’s watched the Olympics — along with a natural swimmer’s build (big feet, long arms).
But, he admits, it took him a few years to make the most of that talent, especially in bigger meets.
“I’ve definitely learned from my freshman year to now how to deal with nerves,” he said. “I did not know how to deal with it before, especially my sophomore year at districts. I freaked out before races. But now it’s kind of like you get nervous and keep it yourself.
“For me, it’s always been, as soon as I step up to the block, everything’s gone. I don’t hear anything. It’s just me and the water.”
Brady is much more relaxed when he’s not competing and he has happily (and happy-go-luckily) spent the last three years as the Cardinals’ talented younger brother. (Even last year, Brady was the only non-senior on Canfield’s state-qualifying relays.) But with just three seniors on this year’s team — Kyle Anderson is the only other boy senior, while Heaven’s daughter, Sarah, is the lone girl senior — he’s taken on his new leadership role like a fish to ... well, you know.
“He’s definitely somebody on the team that likes to help other swimmers,” Heaven said. “In fact, earlier in the season, he asked if the three seniors could do 15-minute sessions divided by stroke, so they could help with the underclassmen. It was really a great learning tool and he excels at something like that.”
His best student may be his brother, Cullen, a freshman who is already one of the team’s best freestylers.
“He helps me a lot,” Cullen said. “He watches all my races and tells me what I’m doing bad, what I’m doing good.”
Cullen is Brady’s only sibling and they get along well — “We have our mixed emotions sometimes, but as I got older, I realized I needed to start looking up to him,” Cullen joked — although there was one bad incident during one of last year’s blizzards. Brady’s jeep slid down a hill sideways and got pinned between two trees, so Cullen had to get out and push.
“We were doing fine until I slid about an inch sideways and broke his finger so he had to get six stitches,” Brady said. “So, that happened.
“But we definitely have good times. I guarantee we have more than anyone else, that’s for sure. And he’s got a lot of potential as a swimmer. There are things that need to be fixed, but as a brother, that’s what I’m here for.”
Next year will be a different story. Although he loves the water, Brady admits he has a love/hate relationship with swimming. (“It’s a large, large commitment every single day.”) Still, he’s leaning toward swimming in college next season and has narrowed his choices to Kentucky, Cincinnati and West Virginia.
“Those are very good programs and I want to go in somewhere as one of the slower guys on the team,” he said. “I want to go somewhere that will really make me the best swimmer I can possibly be.”
Until then, he has two more high school goals. One is to continue the legacy of Canfield swimming, which has advanced at least one relay to Canton every year since 2005 and pairs with Boardman as the Valley’s two dominant programs.
“That’s what our guys started saying this year — continuing our legacy one stroke at a time,” he said. “I actually came up with that.”
He paused, smiled and said, “At least I think so.”
The other goal is more personal. Over the past three years, he’s won three silver medals. He admits a gold one would be nice.
“I want to do better than last year and, place-wise, there’s only one more place to go,” Brady said. “It’s my last year. I’ve just got to give it everything I’ve got.”