Heart pounding, she begins to step up onto the block. She adjusts her goggles and makes sure her swim cap is on tight. Bending down to slap her legs in a ritualistic pre-race routine, she prepares herself mentally for the race ahead. Taking her mark, senior Adeline Cloutier waits for the electronic buzz allowing her to dart into the water.
Cloutier has been swimming competitively since middle school. On these teams, athletes constantly work to take seconds off of their time to be the best. This environment can make the sport feel isolating. However, Cloutier has found the companionship surrounding high-school swim at Robinson so much more magnetic.
“I think that’s what motivates me, because swimming is a taxing sport. It’s not the most enjoyable sport at times, waking up super early in the morning to go to practice is not enjoyable, and getting in water and getting all wet and then having to go to school immediately after,” Cloutier said. “You know that’s not exactly fun. But when you go and you see these kids putting in the work and committing to it all fall season long. It’s inspiring. I’m like ‘Well, you’re not moaning and groaning about it.’ So it makes it better to be around. A lot of people are there to clear their mind It’s a great form of exercise to just move your body.”
On June 15, the summer before an athlete’s junior year, the collegiate swimming recruitment process begins. The swimmer’s inbox floods with emails from hopeful coaches asking to set up zooms, face times and phone calls. Despite her father swimming for the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Cloutier went into the process with no preference for the school. During the recruitment process, Cloutier wanted to stay objective when it came to choosing a program to work with. She worked with her coaches and parents to decide what was most important to her in a school. She wanted a school that was in the ACC, SEC or Ivy league; had good academics and a nurturing team environment.
“There is a reason why you are called a collegiate student athlete and student comes before athlete, so you have to make sure you as a student is what is fitting in most importantly after the athlete part. When the recruiting process started, UNC just really stood out to me based on coaching staff and after my recruiting trip I was absolutely in love,” Cloutier said. “I’ve grew up going to Chapel Hill, going to the campus, my whole life, but, when I went on my recruiting trip, it was like a whole new aspect of the school was opened up to me and it just made me love it more.”
Growing up having family roots in Chapel Hill and going to sporting events for the school, Cloutier thought she has seen all that UNC had to offer. After her recruiting trip, she had the chance to really see and feel what it was like to be a Tarheel.
“You get to meet the team, meet the coaches, you see the pool, you get to see what being a collegiate athlete is like. They take you along their day to day,” Cloutier said. “Morning practice, strength and conditioning, you have your lift sessions and you have your recovery sessions with the ice bath, massage therapy, and then you have all of your class schedules, and then you get dining hall and afternoon practice. It goes on forever but it’s so exciting and it makes you just want to be there. I was like, I don’t want to leave after my trip. I feel like that’s how I knew that’s where I want to go.”
Becoming a D1 athlete is an achievement only 3.3% of high school swimmers get to see. Cloutier has worked hard for this opportunity for a majority of her life, and she does not intend on taking it for granted.
“At the end of the day it’s not my decision, the coach has to offer you a spot. So when the [UNC] coach offered me that spot I was like ‘100 percent yes’!”
While the 24-25 season will be Cloutier’s last time racing at the Bobby Hicks pool for the knights, she is extremely excited to get to represent Robinson at the next level.
