By TOM BONE
ATHENS — Making the state high school swim meet as a freshman is unusual. Repeating the next year is noteworthy. Doing so after juggling swim practice and basketball all winter is downright surprising.
Willie Sizemore himself was surprised.
“It just kind of flowed,” the PikeView High School sophomore said after his qualifying performance in the 100 backstroke last Saturday at the Region III swim meet. “I don’t know what happened.”
His time of 1:06.29 was a personal best, and four seconds faster than any other time he had turned in this season.
“That time just sort of came out of nowhere,” said his mother, Beth Sizemore of Athens. “I think everyone was just shocked when he touched the wall and we looked up and saw the time. It was really exciting.”
Willie Sizemore said, “My strategy — actually it wasn’t much of a strategy — was just to jump in and go as fast as I could, and if I died, I died. I was concerned that I might not be able to keep up the pace, (but) it worked out good at the end.”
Having been through the postseason meets “gave me a sense of what was going on,” he said. “I’d been there before. ... It wasn’t as intimidating as it was last year.”
Sizemore was asked if qualifying was easier the second time around.
“No, it was not easier this year,” he said without hesitation. “It was actually harder, because I was playing basketball and swimming at the same time. I wasn’t able to put a lot of practice time in.”
His coach, Ben Brownlee, said, “His endurance hasn’t been a problem, because he’s been running so much in basketball. His technique is what we’ve primarily been working on.”
“He’s really had to come in and work on the finer points,” Brownlee said. “For instance, making sure he hasn’t lost a step on his start, (or) that he’s not getting sloppy with his stroke.”
Beth Sizemore said about her son, “I was hopeful that he would qualify again, but he plays basketball as well, and unfortunately, they are during the same season. It’s been real hard to balance basketball and swimming. I wasn’t sure he would be as competitive this year.
“He really loves both of them, and he has really worked hard to make this work. We’re really proud of him for trying.”
“Making the state meet was icing on the cake, as far as we’re concerned.”
The fastest four times in each of four regions automatically qualify for the state meet. Sizemore was not among that bunch from Region III, but he found out later in the weekend that he qualified because he was among the next eight fastest times from around the state in the 100 backstroke.
PikeView sent three other swimmers to the meet — Tom White, Maggie Dillon and Desiree Duarte. Each was limited to entering two events. Sizemore also swam the 100 freestyle, and finished eighth with another personal best time, but did not qualify in that event.
Sizemore, a basketball player for PikeView’s junior varsity and varsity teams, said his schedule this week will be “mainly about swim.”
The routine, he said, will be “just practice. Practice the 100 back over and over again. The start, the turns, the finish. Just work on anything that can make my time a little bit faster.”
Rescheduling of basketball games made his dual commitment even more difficult recently, he said, and required some creative planning.
On Thursday, he rode the basketball team bus to Winfield and played in the junior varsity contest.
He said, “I actually got injured. I got elbowed in the jaw. I’m pretty sure it got knocked out of place. But your jaw doesn’t affect your swimming.”
After the game, he and his parents completed the chilly drive to Elkins, site of Davis & Elkins College, where the regional swim meet would begin the next morning.
“We got to the hotel room at about 11,” he said. “We watched the WVU-Pitt game. That was not part of the plan, but I could not go to bed. The Mountaineers are one of my favorite teams.”
After West Virginia’s triple-overtime loss, in a game that ended shortly after midnight, “I fell asleep real quick,” he said. “I had to wake up at 8:10 the next morning. Ate some breakfast, went to the pool and got ready to swim.
“I had very busy comings and goings prior to the meet.”
After the meet, when the Sizemores exited the West Virginia Turnpike on Saturday night, they stopped at PikeView High, where the Panthers were playing the Bluefield Beavers. Willie Sizemore had to check on his basketball compatriots.
He said, “I saw that the JV won, and peeked in and saw the varsity. But I had to go home. I was exhausted.”
Now attention turns again to the state tournament, coming up Thursday and Friday at the West Virginia University Natatorium in Morgantown.
Brownlee and the Sizemore family plan to leave early Thursday morning. “Warmups are at 2:30 for the boys’ prelims,” Brownlee said.
But Willie Sizemore is not one to spend hours searching the Web seeking news about his opponents.
“I never keep track of competitors. I just do my own thing,” he said. Prior to the regional meet, “the only time I ever knew who I was up against was when I got the heat sheets,” he said.
— Contact Tom Bone
at tbone@bdtonline.com
