Meet Keith Williams who will represent at the 2021 NCS Open Water Zones
CARY, N.C. — I have been an Amberly Anaconda since its second year. I would like to share my journey as a swimmer with you and how being an Anaconda has impacted my life. However, let me give you some background that led to my days of swim meets and competitions.
I was four years old when my parents thought that I should learn to swim. I am told that I was fearless and dangerous. I guess over time, I learned to respect the water. A few years later, while I was in swimming lessons, my mother would start to look a few lanes over and watch children my age training for competition. That summer, I became an Amberly Anaconda, a decision that would change the direction of my life forever. It would shape me and provide for me in the most unexpected ways. My first year was fun: new friends, swimming, part of a team, a great way to spend the summer. I was never in a main event, and I didn’t care because it was just fun to be part of the team and to compete against other neighborhoods.
When that summer was over, I was disappointed that I would have to wait until the next year to do it again. I was turning eight years old and really liked swimming. My mother decided to enroll me in year-round swimming as a result. I entered their conditioning program, which was the prerequisite before joining the team. I trained there for approximately six to seven months, two to three evenings per week, an hour more or less at a time. At the time, it felt like an extension of my swimming lessons in the past.
In April of the following year, I finally made it onto the team and found new friends, which I still have to this day on my team. That summer, I could not wait to swim again for Amberly. I still had not proven myself to the Anacondas, so it was not until near the end of the six meet summer season that I would swim in my first main event. I was enjoying my new skills and now part of two teams.
Fast forward to now, I didn’t swim last summer with Amberly due to the current pandemic and not sure what the future holds. I am still swimming year-round and now practicing six days a week, 2-3 plus hours per day, including my dryland training. For the second year in a row, I have been on my high school swim team (go Swimcats!), and this year was the only member of my high school team to swim in the State Championships. My year-round club has risen from obscurity to be among the top five swim teams in the nation. I not only qualified for the USA Swimming North Carolina Senior Champs, but last weekend, I attended the ESSZ (Eastern Section of the Southern Zones) to compete against other competitors from North Carolina as with several other states as well. I am also an experienced Open Water Swimmer; I enjoy swimming outside of the pool as well. Even though I qualified to swim at 2020 Open Water Zones, I wasn’t able to compete due to COVID-19. However, I am looking forward to representing North Carolina Swimming at 2021 NCS Open Water Zones in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this summer.
When asked if I would ever quit swimming, I answer that I can’t. It is now part of who I am; it is all I know. My closest friends and associations all involve swimming. My social life is swimming. I love to compete, especially distance, and even more than that, my favorite competition is open water. I am so grateful that I have been selected to be one of the very few swimmers invited to Tennessee to swim in the open water zones meet.
My goal for the near and distant future is to compete nationally, which I am on track to do, as I now have qualified at the national level. Most importantly, I hope to translate swimming into an opportunity for college and my future.
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