Sam Deyak ’17 stands by the Coralville Recreation Center swimming pool after practice. The No. 9 ranked Trojans faced No. 10 Cedar Rapids Washington on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
Sam Deyak ’17
Sam Deyak has swam with West for all four seasons, and has now risen to the helm of the boys swimming team.
West Side Story: When did you first start swimming?
Sam Deyak ’17: I started in junior high. Then, after junior high, my dad signed me up for IFLY and I swam with them when I wasn’t swimming with West.
WSS: What made you start?
SD: At Northwest, they schedule the sports so you could do all of them if you wanted, and so that’s what I did. But with swimming I had the most fun, which is why I stuck with it.
WSS: What have you enjoyed most about this season so far?
SD: How so many of us can come in at the first few meets and already be dropping major time in our races.
WSS: What are your best events?
SD: Breaststroke and freestyle 50s and 100s.
WSS: What are your goals for this year?
SD: Swim breaststroke in the medley relay, 100 breast[stroke], and in the two free[style] relays at state.
WSS: What inspires you to keep swimming?
SD: [During my] freshman and sophomore years, I wasn’t very good, but I had a lot of fun with the team so I just kept swimming. Then junior year, I was one of the alternates at state. Just watching all the guys swim at state really makes me want to do everything I can to swim at state.
WSS: What are your future plans for swimming?
SD: Over the years, I’ve been getting better and better, seeing major time drops from season to season. So I’ve been looking for some colleges I could swim at.
WSS: See any colleges you might attend?
SD: I want to go to a bigger school, and the bigger the school, the faster they’ll be. I’m not fast enough to swim at a big name school, but there are some Division I, Division II schools I’m sure I could swim at.