Former Ridgefield Swimming Standout Shares #MyReasonWhy

Sometimes the conversation is a whisper, occasionally it’s a shout, but it’s a conversation that nevertheless is a part of high school sports in Connecticut and across the country in 2018.

It suggests that many elite athletes choose to showcase their athletic skills in venues other than for their high school teams. It’s a conversation with varied opinions and valid points but Connecticut high school sports fans would likely disagree that they don’t get to see some elite talent. That has been particularly true in the pool where some of Connecticut’s best have been rewriting the record book in recent years.

 

Ridgefield’s Kieran Smith, who graduated in 2018, was responsible for a large portion of that record book domination. A competitor with his pedigree no doubt had plenty of athletic venues available to him. He chose to be a part of his community and represent his high school. We asked him #MyReasonWhy.

“Freshman year it was inevitable I had to swim for the high school, just to see how it was…I had a blast freshman year, I couldn’t pass it up just because I wanted to pursue my club swimming goals. It was such a great team atmosphere, and my brother said college swimming is just high school swimming on steroids. So it’s the same sort of idea you get the team aspect, the willingness to win.”

“I’ve learned how to be a good leader which I think is a great asset for the future not only in swimming but in life. I got to have the sensation of a team, of being around a team and everyone working for one goal — that’s a great thing. Club swimming different people have different goals, they have different meets they want to go to, different priorities. For high school swimming it seemed like everyone had the same end goal and everyone wanted to be the best they could be.”