The MVP

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Morning after morning, the same time, he hears his alarm buzzing and can barely open his eyes, let alone get in the water. But every morning he did, he got out of bed and worked himself half to death. He knew that to pull off a 3-peat it would take this kind of effort, but he knew they could do it; he knew they would make history.

He looks back at the coaches for one last glimpse of reassurance, puts on his goggles and focuses. As Daniel prepares to dive in, he has no idea that this will be the moment that makes him the MVP at the state meet. He takes a deep breath, dives in, and gives his all.

After winning state championships for three years in a row, Cape Central’s swim team has become known around the state for being very successful,  Named the “Most Valuable Person” of this year’s meet was junior, Daniel Seabaugh. Seabaugh has been swimming for ten years now; he started on a team called “the barracudas” when he was 5 years old. Then he swam for gators swim team when he was 9, and then he started swimming for RCA when he was 13 and has been a member of Cape Central’s swim team for three years now. He says, “My mom threw me into swimming and then I kinda fell in love with it.”

During the state meet, Seabaugh broke three records, he broke the 200 free record; the state record was 1:40.7 and he achieved a 1:39.14. He also broke the 500 free record, which was 4:34.26 and he achieved a 4:29.8, and he played a part in the 200 free relay which was 1:26.9 and they achieved 1:26.7.

Achieving this is impossible without hard work and lots of practice. Seabaugh said, “Every practice is different we do distance training, sprint training, IM training, individual stroke training, and dry land. We practice every single day twice a day. Each practice is about 2 hours.”

Being MVP of a three-time state champion team is a huge accomplishment, and not an everyday thing, meaning it has to feel good. Seabaugh explained, “My coach had talked about it to me before and during the meet, but I didn’t officially find out till like 10 min after we won, it was shocking and really nice, it felt like after the hard year I had, everything came into place”

The team lost a lot of valuable members that graduated this last year, not many expected them to win, but that didn’t stop the team, and it gave Seabaugh his motivation. Seabaugh and the team showed that nothing stops them by giving their all. Looking forward, Seabaugh plans on swimming in college but has not decided on one yet. As for now, he is proudly holding his title, yet still working hard for next year hoping to assist the team for a 4th win.