20 Question Tuesday: Reece Whitley Part 1
What a weekend for Reece Whitley. The World Junior Championship medalist and future Cal swimmer went to Easterns for the last time as a Penn Charter swimmer and was locked in a battle for the national 100 breaststroke record. Whitley came away with it, and while he was proud to end his career on a high note -- the Penn Charter women won the title -- he says he has a lot of work to do. He talks about that, and why swimming can be proud during Black History Month because of its diversity, in this first of a two-part 20 Question Tuesday.
12. You are going to Cal with Dave Durden. Do you see yourself working on your IM there?Reece: Oh yes, of course. For Crystal, the basis of our program is IM training. So ever since I was a pretty young kid I've always trained IM. Now that my body is (laughs) finally filling out a little bit, I am getting a better feel on how to swim these other strokes. Everything is kind of falling into place and I am beginning to put together a good IM.
13. Dave's a great communicator, so you two go in on the same page, right?Reece: Yes, in fact when I committed (to Cal), Dave told me I would not just swim the breaststroke, that there will be a lot more than that. And that is something that sold me on the program, knowing he doesn't want to limit what I can do in the other strokes, especially since i hope to bring my IM down.
14. Nice to have the recruiting process over?Reece: Yes, but for me, it really was a great experience. The coaches I talked to are just phenomenal people, Eddie Reese (at Texas) and Gregg Troy and Steve (Jungbluth) at Florida -- they were all so great throughout the process.
15. All great schools and great locations -- good choices, one and all. But seeing how comfortable you are with Cal, it's nice to have that done and feel good about it, isn't it?Reece: I really do feel like I'll fit in with the team at Cal, it was very comfortable with the guys there -- though it was certainly great atmospheres and teams at the other schools. Cal just seemed like a perfect fit. They train as hard as anyone and I felt really comfortable with Dave. I also know how hard they work at the other schools and the great results and people they have speaks for the commitment and results, just great programs.
16. It's funny because the Cal guys explained everything to me from which math courses my kid should take to get ready in college to how to fix my cell phone and the engineering behind it that caused the problem -- a pretty unique bunch, aren't they?Reece: It is incredible to see what so many of the guys on the team are studying and the difference they hope to make in life with their careers. All of them are the really smart kind of thinkers that you just described. I felt like I look at the world a lot like they do. I don't think Dave would have someone on the team who didn't have that kind of mindset -- who doesn't understand how important it is to put school before swimming. I take my goals very seriously and I got the feeling those guys have that attitude. Again though, there were guys like that at the other schools and I was humbled to meet all those incredible people, too.
17. And if you want to work on your IM's backstroke, you can just work with the best in the world in Ryan Murphy, right?Reece: For sure, Murph's going to whoop me in the IM workouts, and it'll take (laughs) a while to do a sprint backstroke set with him. But I'm really excited to be a sponge. There are a lot of resources at Cal. Being here with Crystal has been great, but it's only kind of been her and I, and we learn from people far away. So being in a place with more information and resources will be a great opportunity for which I am grateful.
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Also recruited by Florida & Texas, huh, but he came here so