- April 23, 2024
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Sam Peters was a pretty good swimmer when he gave up the sport five years ago when he was 11 years old.
“I just didn’t really like swimming, and I wanted to start playing football,” the Matanzas High School junior said.
He played defensive end at his high school in Fort Collins, Colorado, until tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee a year ago. His family moved to Palm Coast in the summer, and Peters wanted to start playing football again.
However, his father, Dave Peters, steered him in another direction. He wanted Sam to play a sport. He didn’t want him re-injuring his ACL.
“He was doing great in football,” Dave Peters said. “But he tore his ACL, and you rarely do that swimming. So, I said, ‘I think you're going to be a swimmer again.’”
It helped that one of Sam’s first friends at Matanzas, Teddy Vanderbilt, is on the Pirates’ swim team. Vanderbilt set a school record as a freshman last season. Now, Sam Peters owns a school record as well.
Peters broke the record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 13.74 seconds.
“I was definitely surprised,” he said. “I didn't think I was going to get this far in one season.”
But once he got in the water, muscle memory took over, he said.
“I didn’t have any major issues with my strokes,” said Peters, who also swims the 100-yard butterfly and occasionally the 100-yard freestyle in addition to a couple of relays.
“My knee hurt a little bit at first,” he said. “But I got used to it. I think swimming helped rehabilitate it.”
Peters not only set a school record in his first season as a high school swimmer, but he also has been named captain of the team.
“He’s a great kid,” Matanzas swim coach Carrie Purdy said. “He was very helpful and showed leadership skills. He’s very team-oriented, and he’s a competitive swimmer.”
“My knee hurt a little bit at first. But I got used to it. I think swimming helped rehabilitate it.”
— SAM PETERS
Dave Peters said when they lived in Texas, Sam was highly ranked in his age group in the butterfly. But once they moved to Colorado, his interest waned.
“When we got to Colorado, the team was pretty intense,” Dave Peters said. “They were a twice-a-day kind of practice team. And he just quickly grew tired of that.”
High school swimmers in Flagler and Volusia counties this season have had a different problem. Because of persistent afternoon thunderstorms, the teams have had limited pool time. Two of the Pirates’ meets were canceled.
A pump at the Palm Coast Aquatics Center was damaged by Hurricane Ian, and the Pirates had to shift their practice last week to the Ormond Beach YMCA, while the city waited for parts to repair the pump.
Peters has been staying in shape with dryland workouts. Now that he has one school record, he said he’d like to shave time off his 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle.
He said he now plans to stick with swimming for the rest of his high school career.
“It's definitely a lot different (than football), to say the least,” he said. “But it still has that aspect of bettering yourself to improve the team. It's more individual I would say, but the team aspect is still there.”
