Interview with swimmer Trevor Ackerman
Trevor Ackerman swam competitively until his last season of high school competition was over. He is from Tampa, Florida and swam in high school. He graduated from the University of Florida with his degree in Sustainability Studies and a minor in History. After that, he went to the University of Oregon to pursue graduate school. He got his master’s degree in 2021 in Community Regional Planning. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon and works for the Mount Adams Institute as the Outreach Coordinator. Fun fact: the only triathlon he’s been a part of he won because he was great in the swimming part. In his free time he loves to hike in the Pacific Northwest and he swims for exercise.
Below I have written most of what we talked about but you can listen to the full podcast HERE.
Q: When did you start playing sports?
A: I started swimming when I was 7, soccer and baseball at 5. I ended up dropping baseball stuck with soccer. I started swimming in a summer league, got good at it, and ended up picking swimming over soccer.
Q: When did you stop swimming and why?
A: I almost quit in 7th grade. I told my parents it wasn’t fun anymore and I hated it. I went to a high school coach and told her I didn’t like it. She understood, then she asked me to give her team a chance. She saved me from quitting by telling me that “not all teams are bad and not all coaches are bad”. I made good friends and I’m still friends with them today. High school swimming was so much fun. We were runner up in state my sophomore and senior years. We were state champions my junior year and I was the captain my senior year. The only meets we (the boys swimming team) didn’t win was state.
Q: When did you start swimming competitively?
A: I was 9 or 10 when I started swimming year round. Practice was twice a day six days a week, with one afternoon off per week. I never had any summers off from training. At 11 years old I was doing several miles per day. Every day you don’t swim, you’re two days behind where you were. You have to keep up with it. Multiple coaches told me that.
Q: How did growing up in Florida affect your sport?
A: Florida in general is really competitive in every sport, you name it. Almost every sport. It made it challenging because you had to be really good to make it anywhere. Where I grew up, they changed the rules one year on how to make it to the state championship. You had to be top 8 in your region to make it to state. Unfortunately, I got ninth at regions. Even though I had faster times than other swimmers in the state, I didn’t make it because in my region I got ninth place.
Q: Do you feel like you would have done a different degree / career path if you were a college student-athlete?
A: I think so because a benefit of sports is the community that comes with being on a team and I struggled to find that in college. It was hard to find that and if I was on a team I would have built-in friends as mentors. I feel like that would help, especially at UF with 35K undergrad, and my freshman class was 9-10K. My career path would be the same but my degree would have been different. It probably would have been more structured. A lot of friends I made was through jobs so I found communities in other ways but being a part of a team would have been a clear and direct path to support.
Q: How did swimming competitively shape who you are today?
A: It taught me a lot of hard life lessons. I learned that your mind is so powerful. Also, I met a lot of my very close friends from swimming. It shaped me as who I am today. I was fortunate enough to make lifelong friends from a young age. It took me awhile to come back around to swimming but I love to swim as exercise now. I am grateful to practice now as a system to do instead of aimlessly doing it. The structure and muscle memory is still there and it’s something I could do for the rest of my life.
Q: Even though you decided to be done competing before college, did you struggle with ending the sport?
A: The day that I woke up knowing that I didn’t have to or was forced to step into the pool was one of the best. The transition was challenging because I had too much free time. I had done all of my schooling before that in a time crunch and now I have hours of time to do nothing. With that, I got a job because I had too much time. I had to readjust to the schedule but it made me efficient and better at time management. I was thinking to myself, how do I keep productive? What makes me happy? At the end of the day, I can choose to get back in the pool if I want to. I don’t feel pressure anymore and I’m not trying to please anyone. Finally I had control over my sport. I loved the sport when I started but I fell out of love because of all the pressure. I found the love again when I had control over it.
Q: How did you get into an environmental / nonprofit focused career?
A: I always enjoyed the outdoors, going to the beach, and exploring my neighborhood. I started volunteering in high school at the local aquarium (Clearwater Aquarium where Winter the dolphin is). I wanted to be a vet. I loved animals and being outdoors. It was a struggle to find where I fit in what career I would choose. I just kept saying yes to opportunities I found interesting and was passionate about. I slowly got into the field of environmental work and outdoors through internships and clean ups.
Q: Have you ever considered being a coach?
A: Yeah, I have. I’m still undecided. I don’t know if I would coach swimming. I might coach soccer.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who is recently done playing a sport?
A: Make sure you find something else to fill the time. Get a job, find a hobby, start volunteering. No matter what, your sport took time for you. Take the new free time to do things that interest you. Competitive sports take a lot of time and sometimes takes away opportunities to explore other things you’re interested in. Try new things when you’re done and learn more about yourself. I know a lot of people who had no idea what to do. Be intentional about your time. The structure of sports is super beneficial. Don’t lose that structure, and use the time to find new things about yourself. I lost the structure for a long time. It’s a healthy thing to have and will be helpful in the long run.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who is currently playing a sport?
A: Have fun. Yeah, sports are challenging. There are days you’ll wake up and think “why am I doing this” but it is fun. If you’re struggling, try to find a way back to what you loved about it in the beginning. Even though I didn’t have the most positive experience, I wouldn’t change anything. I have a lot of great memories.
Q: Do you have anything else to add?
A: Go Gators.
If you have any more questions for Trevor, please leave comments below or contact me. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call the Suicide Hotline. It’s toll free and available 24/7 at 800-273-8255.
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