College Recruit Rankings Profile: Five-Star Doug Reynolds, Class of 2010

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 3. DOUG Reynolds, a five-star recruit from the Class of 2010, is next up in the Swimming World College Recruit Rankings Profiles series. Reynolds comes from Loganville, Ga., and swims for Summit Swimming. He also preps at Loganville High.

Reynolds maintains his profile in the Swimming World College Recruit Rankings powered by Take Your Marks, and is a sprint specialist.

Reynolds' top times come in long course meters with senior national cuts in the 50 free (23.29) and 100 fly (54.95). He also has a NCAA Division I B cut time of 47.65 in the 100-yard fly.

Where and when did you start swimming?
I started swimming when I was 7 years old on a local summer league team the Summit Chase Sharks. A year later, I joined Summit Swimming, the club team that swam out of that same pool and have been there ever since.

Who would you name as the most influential person and coach in your swimming career?
Easily the most influential person is my current coach, Humphrey Fraser. I have been coached by a couple other coaches inside the Summit program but as the head coach, Humphrey has carried me from a young age and we have been through everything together. He has taught me many life lessons and taught me not only how to be a good swimmer and athlete, but also how to be a respectable person.

What, to this point, is your best moment in the sport and why?
I have two moments that are both pretty close to the best times I have ever had. One is when I swam at the 2009 World Championship Trials this year. The experience was incredible and I will never forget it. The other is when I made my qualifying time for the WTC meet. The meet was our Georgia Divisional meet so there were not any large teams at the meet, but there were some UGA swimmers there that I wanted to race. In my 100 fly, I was seeded second in the morning after going a best time by about half a second. Going into finals I was excited to race the UGA swimmer who was seeded ahead of me, but I did not expect to win. After the 50, I looked over and saw I had him by about a shoulder length and I just put my head down and prayed. The Lord blessed me with a phenomenal race. I took off over a second from the best time I had posted in prelims and won the race.

Walk us through a day of practice:
If we are currently at a point were we are training in the morning then I wake up at 4:30. I grab a quick snack before I drive to the pool. I get in the water at 5 and swim till 6 or 6:30, depending on if our coach wants us to do weights or stretching afterwards. After school I either have to be at the pool at 3:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays for weight training or 4:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. From 4:30 to 6:30 we are in the water. Usually starts with around a 2000 of warm up, then whether it is a couple smaller sets or one large one that is the bulk of our practice. Then at the end we usually get up and do something for time.

What is your favorite set?
My favorite set is called The Pacer. My coach modeled it off a set done in High School Gym classes. It usually takes the whole practice so we might do a 1000 warm up but we get right into it. My coach has every person line up side by side, usually three people per lane. During the whole set, we do 25s on a decreasing increment. You can swim whatever stroke you want, but if you don't want to make your fellow swimmers mad you just stick with freestyle. The first 5-10 50s are on the minute. My coach switches up how many we do on each increment every time.

After those first 5-10, he lowers the time by five seconds. At first the set is quite easy, 50s freestyle on the minute? However, once you have been doing the set for an hour to and hour and a half the send off gets faster and faster. Soon people are dropping out, usually around 70-90 laps.

Once it gets up around 130 or so I am usually the last one in so it gets progressively hard when there are less people to race.

One of my coaches' favorite quotes is: "It takes a Team to go fast" and in that set I know what he means. By the end, all my teammates are either on the side or underwater cheering me on. They are the ones who help motivate me to do as many laps as I can.

What is your least favorite set?
My least favorite set is probably the one that is best for me. It is just a simple set of 10 100s on the 1:10. When we started doing this set three years ago I started on the 1:20. Since I normally cannot make all 10 I usually do as many as I can then, on the first one I miss I take five seconds extra rest and go on the 1:15.

What are your short-term goals?
My huge short-term goal for right now is just figuring out where I will be attending college next year. It is such a huge part of my life that it is nerve racking yet exciting at the same time.

What are your long-term goals?
I guess I am a guy who loves the term "Go Big, or Go Home." My long term goals/dreams are to get a spot on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team, then again in 2016. Go to as many International meets as possible. I also would like to be a swim coach some day, so we will see how that goes. One crazy dream that I have always had is to swim large bodies of water (it's crazy because I am a sprinter). Someday, I hope after my college swimming is over; I would love to swim the English Channel, from Florida to Cuba, and the Hawaiian Islands. Maybe even the Atlantic… Just kidding, but it's fun to dream.

What colleges are you interested in so far?
As of today my Top 3 would have to be the University of Tennessee, University of Florida, and the University of Georgia.

What has the recruiting process been like so far, now that you are allowed to be called by coaches?
So far it has been awesome, and I am only expecting it to get better as I will soon start taking my trips to the colleges I am interested in. It has been quite a different experience for me so far. Until about a year ago, I was a normal swimmer, making it to sectionals in a couple of events but never really breaking onto the national stage. However, since the NCSA Junior National meet last year I have started to move up in the rankings and the fact that these colleges that I had only dreamed of swimming at are interested in me is a dream come true.

Is there anything else interesting that you'd like our readers to know about you?
I like playing the guitar, even though I only know a couple songs and I sound terrible it is a good way for me to just relax after a hard day. If I am around the house, driving to practice, or at a meet I am almost always listening to music. A huge thing about me is I am a swimmer, but I am a Christian first. My religion is very important to me and whenever I am not at a meet on Sundays I am in attendance at my church, Chestnut Grove Baptist Church. One thing that makes me so excited about swimming is that I believe God has given me a talent, and there are no limits to what he can do in me. All swimmers and all athletes are blessed with a special gift, and I thank God daily for blessing me with my talents.

RECRUITS: To make sure we have the most updated information on your recruiting, and to earn the highest star ranking you deserve, please either create a new profile, or request to take over your admin-created account in the Swimming World College Recruit Rankings powered by Take Your Marks. Then make sure to update your profile with your top times. Click here for information on how to do so.

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