University of Tennessee Athletics
NCAA SWIMMING QUALIFIER PROFILE: BRAD BOSWELL
March 05, 2007 | Men's Swimming & Diving
March 5, 2007
Beginning today, March 5, 2007, Utsports.com will publish several profiles to spotlight eight Tennessee swimmers who qualified for the 2007 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. Each day a new release will focus on a new swimmer to honor his accomplishments, to peer into the personality of a UT swimmer and to learn about his preparatory thoughts on the championships that will be held March 15-17. The swimmers will be highlighted in the following order: Brad Boswell, Andrew Engle, Octavio Alesi, Jimmy Dabney, Nolan Morrell, Barry Murphy, Jeffrey Sudbury and Michael Wolfe. Today's profile focuses on senior Brad Boswell.
NCAA SWIMMING QUALIFIER PROFILE: Brad Boswell
Senior Brad Boswell (6-6, 200) who specializes in the backstroke and freestyle for the University of Tennessee has qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay and 100 backstroke. In his career, Boswell has compiled 10 All-America honors for the Volunteers.
Boswell's biggest impression, however, is not necessarily left at the swimming pool. This year, the SEC named him to the Goodworks Service Team. He has contributed time to the Read-to-Me program, Read Across America, the National Kidney Foundation Book Drive, Camp Rainbow, Habitat for Humanity, Lift Up America and Toys-for-Tots. When community service obviously is not enough for Brad Boswell, he also earned Thorton Athletic Center and SEC Winter honor rolls.
How does one manage to be a superb student, a humble servant and a quality collegiate athlete with so little time? Boswell claims it to be a breeze.
"The majority of my service projects come from Children's Hospital which I only do on Sundays when we don't have competitions and I would otherwise be sleeping," said Boswell. "It doesn't really take a whole lot of time out of my day there. Some of the opportunities I've had such as reading with kids occurs only a half-hour or hour at a time. There are always requests for a student athlete."
After spending 150 hours at East Tennessee Children's hospital in the Child Life Department, he still suggests that it doesn't take too much time out of his day. Boswell also modestly denied its difficulty.
"It's really not to hard to manage all those projects," Boswell said.
Boswell also offered insight to his motive behind his numerous service projects, particularly the Children's Hospital charity.
"The Children's Hospital project was something I really chose to do on my own accord. I sent in an application, and after four months they finally responded back to me. I've been working there ever since."
One can only imagine that such selfless character was fashioned by loving and virtuous family members, 11 of which will be attending the championships next week. Boswell did, in fact, mention that he was sure he inherited his athletic ability from his father and mother.
"My dad played basketball at West Point," Boswell said. "And his coach was Bob Knight. Coach Krzyzewski was one of his teammates. My dad played center. He was 6-8 which is where I received my height. I think, however, that I received my endurance from my mom. She still runs four miles every morning and she plays tennis. When she went to college, there were no sports that were available for her. So, she became a cheerleader. If there were more sports available, I'm sure she would have done them."
One must expect that with such a résumé, success is the only option at the NCAA Championships.
"It's my senior year and my last chance to do my very best," Boswell said. "Most of the guys that are going into the NCAAs did not shave for the SECs; so, we have so much to look forward to because most of the time when you prepare for NCAAs, you lose your taper. With hard training, it's hard to perform well in both the conference and national championships. We decided that the NCAAs should be our best meet and we are really excited about it. I just hope that I can finish as high as I can, and the relays have a chance to really shock some people and to show them what we're made of."
The NCAA Championships, again, are held March 15-17 in Minneapolis, Minn. The next profile will feature senior Andrew Engle.
Players Mentioned
