|
Young swimmer has her path laid out |
|
December 18, 2017 |
 |
By Mike Weland
The young woman who brought home Bonners Ferry's
first Idaho State swimming trophy November 2,
and the first and only Bonners Ferry Badger
to compete in swimming, is a remarkably
poised young athlete who is using her sport to
fuel her dreams, and also to propel her into her
future.
 |
|
Julia
Cummings, center, has fun training, but
works hard and keeps focused. |
"The Olympics are a dream," sophomore Julia
Cummings, 15, said during training Tuesday at
Sandpoint West Athletic Club, where she travels
from her family's home near Naples several times
a week, all the year 'round, very seldom missing
a practice. "Only the truly gifted ever get to
compete at that level. The chances of reaching
that level are very, very slim. I like to train
like I might compete for a spot on the Olympics
team, but that's not why I swim. I just love the
competitiveness ... I love the sport."
While competing at ever higher levels is a goal
that keeps her working hard, her ulterior motive
and focus is much more pragmatic; what she truly
hopes to get for all the years of training and
competing, she said, is a full-ride scholarship
to the Christian liberal arts Whitworth
University, Spokane, where she hopes to swim for
the Pirates while pursuing a degree in nursing.
"They have a good swim team and a good nursing
program," she said simply. "It's good to work
hard to achieve a dream, but college is more
realistic."
Her hope, she said, is to become a midwife or a
nurse, and to help others.
Julia, the daughter of Brian and Cynthia
Cummings, is able to compete as a Badger in a
sport heretofore never considered viable here
thanks in large part to her focus, her
persistence, the support of her family and her
quiet yet convincing assuredness and a level of
confidence not often found in one so young.
Her family, including younger siblings Sara, who
runs cross country at Boundary County Middle
School, Samantha, a second grader who loves
dance, and Matthew, who attends kindergarten,
moved to Boundary County two years ago from
Columbia, South Carolina, where Julia began
swimming at age eight.
Once here, she said, she and her parents found
the Sandpoint West Athletic Club, where she can
train under coach Mike Brosnahan, and where, in
the off season when she isn't swimming for her
school, she competes with the club's Sandpoint
Sharks swim team.
But swim sessions there are at
4 p.m., too early for her to attend classes as a
Badger, with the four day school week and
extended daily schedule.
To overcome that obstacle, Julia turned to dual
enrollment; she's a Badger attending classes at
Bonners Ferry High School in the mornings, then
going home to study as a student in the Idaho
Virtual Academy (IDVA), a publically-funded and
fully accredited online charter school that lets
her fulfill her class load to gain the credits
she'll need to graduate, while giving her the
flexibility to swim most every afternoon.
And she's a very dedicated swimmer, Brosnahan
says, and fast.
"She hardly ever misses a practice or gets here
late," he said, "and she comes focused on what
she needs to do. And she is fast in the water!"
But that doesn't explain how one dedicated young
athlete became recognized as the first swimmer
in Badger history, and in a school that doesn't
even have a pool!
"At the beginning of the year, my parents and I
got on the agenda at a school board meeting and
we asked the board," Julia said. "They said
yes."
Well, maybe not quite that easily. Julia was
able, with her parents, to outline how it could
work. During the Idaho school swim season, she
would train and travel with the Sandpoint
Bulldogs, but wearing a Badger uniform. Her
enrollment as a part time Badger and part time
IDVA student would give her the ability to
balance her academic load with the rigors of her
sport.
The proposal was so logical and reasonable, of
course the School District 101 Board agreed. And
the trophy Julia brought home for the Badger
trophy case, for winning
the individual 1A-3A title in the 100 back
stroke at the Idaho State Swim Meet in Boise
with a time of 1:04.49, was not only a
testament to her athletic achievement and
ability, but a vindication for the board in
listening to and believing in this poised,
confident and talented young woman. |
|
Questions or comments about this
article?
Click here to e-mail! |
|
|
|
|
