Feature by Megen Donovan<\/i><\/p>\n
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, October 3. WHEN it came time to choose between tennis and swimming, John Bushman, a Green Bay teenager, could only imagine the success he would find in the pool and the difficulty he would find in choosing a college.<\/p>\n
Bushman, a homeschooled brother to five, swam his way through his high school years to the top of recruiting lists. His strong IM and breaststroke events and Junior National and Olympic Trial cuts are a result of his constant and consistent hard work. <\/p>\n
The high school senior began his recruiting process, having already gone on three of the five allotted official visits. So far, Bushman has visited Iowa, Louisville and Minnesota. Still to come are his visits to Michigan and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
"He's leaning towards the Big Ten," Green Bay YMCA head coach Dave Korst, said. "But, of course we're in Big Ten country."<\/p>\n
Bushman has yet to find many cons to outweigh the pros of the schools he has visited.<\/p>\n
"I'm struggling to figure out the negatives about the schools," he said. "This decision is a lot harder than I thought it would be."<\/p>\n
A potential occupational therapy or sports medicine major, Bushman said his main concern is finding what kind of swim team fits best. For example, the three schools he visited are combined men's and women's programs whereas Michigan is home to a separated program.<\/p>\n
"I like how the interact with each other," Bushman said. "I love how close they all are together, how much they get along. I'm interested to see how a separated program, like Michigan, goes…"<\/p>\n
While on his recruiting trips, he tries to get in the water and do about 3,000 to 4,000 yards to stay in shape. <\/p>\n
"They have [the recruits] so packed with academic meetings and other things scheduled, so we only get about an hour or hour and a half to get in," he said. "And even when we do get in, it's hard to push through when you've got hosts waiting for you and coaches waiting."<\/p>\n
Bushman takes ownership in his training. He has been known to do extra workouts throughout the weeks. Korst said the swimmer takes advantage of being homeschooled by doing swimming and lifting on his own. GBY offers practices year-round, but Bushman is able to push himself to that next level of training.<\/p>\n
"Even though we were swimming seven, eight times a week, he still did more," Korst said.<\/p>\n
Bushman works with his coaches to develop a tailored workout regimen. GBY has two doubles per week in the winter months from 5:30-7:30 a.m. Many of the swimmers leave at 6:30 a.m for school, however he is able to spend that last hour doing a wide range of sets geared towards the 400 IM. He is a firm believer in "over distance" training. If he feels he needs more yardage or a recovery day, he and Korst are able to make a plan that best suits Bushman. <\/p>\n
"I have been very fortunate to have him as my coach for the past 8 years," Bushman said. "GBY has been a great experience. I don't think I could have excelled any better on a different team. It's been amazing."<\/p>\n
He feels his level of self-discipline is a good foundation for the success he expects to achieve in college. His experience being homeschooled has taught him to sit down and get his work done in order to balance school and sport.<\/p>\n
"I'm more than prepared to get ready for the next level," he said. "I'm very, very excited to get out there and see what I can do in four years of college swimming."<\/p>\n
Korst has a lot of faith in Bushman as an athlete and a young man. He said Bushman is a good and supportive teammate and "super hard worker." According to Korst, Bushman handles training and big three to four day meets very well. <\/p>\n
"He's impressive," Korst said. "Any college that gets him is going to be very lucky, because he's going to get better."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Feature by Megen Donovan GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, October 3. WHEN it came time to choose between tennis and swimming, John Bushman, a Green Bay teenager, could only imagine the success<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n