When senior captain Chris Verboncoeur won both the 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly at the County Championship Feb. 18, it proved that he truly leads the swim and dive team by example.

Verboncoeur started swimming when he was 6 years old and currently swims with the Rockville Montgomery Swim club.

“I have improved drastically for the past two years as I gave all my other sports up to swim full time,” Verboncoeur said.

Over the last two years Verboncoeur has been training rigorously to hopefully qualify for the Olympic Trials as he practices for about two hours three to four times a week both before and after school.

“Swimming affects my everyday life because it is everyday except for Sundays,” Verboncoeur said. “My ultimate goal is to qualify for Olympic Trials and I have not yet, but I’m not too far off.”

Because of his natural athletic ability, Verboncoeur was skilled in both basketball and football, but decided to drop them to focus on swimming.

“I chose swimming because I really wanted to compete in a sport in college,” Verboncoeur said. “Realistically, swimming was the only sport I could see myself competing in.”

Verboncoeur’s motivation to win and his intimidating size and speed led him to win almost every event he swam. Verboncoeur earned the honor of First Team All-Gazette, which caught the eye of some college coaches.

“He swims the two most exciting events and he almost always wins those events,” head coach Rodney Van Tassell said.  “Aside from being the best swimmer, he is very competitive and determined to win.”

Verboncoeur has been talking with five NCAA Division I schools and hopes to swim in the ACC next winter. He will be one of 17 seniors leaving the swim and dive team next year. 

“I don’t want to think about it,” Van Tassell said. “We will be missing him a lot and we’ll have enormous shoes to fill next year. Whichever school gets him will be lucky because he still has room to improve.”