Boys Swimming: Silver Creek’s Story Stars in the Pool

AURORA – Three years ago, James Story was just starting to hit his swimming stride when he reported for duty as a freshman to the Silver Creek boys swimming team.

It didn’t take long for coach Debbie Stewart to realize that the Raptors’ program had a future star in its midst.

“I was not aware of how talented he was,” Stewart said. “It was very exciting.”

Story merely had an outstanding inaugural high school season, which he capped off with a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle and a third-place result in the 100 freestyle at the state swimming championships.

Though he sat out the high school season as a sophomore to focus on club swimming, he returned to the fold last year and won both the 100 and 200 freestyle events at state, while also swimming a leg on the championship 200 medley relay team to lead Silver Creek to the 4A state championship.

Now a senior, Story can reflect back to his progress in the pool.

“I wouldn’t say that I was slow, but I wasn’t very competitive until I turned 13 or 14,” he said. “I started picking things up my freshman year of high school. From there I started winning, and you love the sport more and more then. It’s such a rewarding feeling.”

As the next couple of weeks pass, Story and the Raptors will start setting their sights on the postseason and the possibility of another strong finish at the state championships.

“The competition is really good in our conference, and hopefully we’ll get a lot more additional state qualifiers,” Stewart said. “James’ leadership will help there. My ultimate goal for state is to stay in the top five.”

Silver Creek won its second state title in four seasons last year, with Story posting victorious times of 46.34 seconds in the 100 free and 1:42.08 in the 200 free. He’s competed in multiple events this season.

“I think it’s going pretty well so far,” Story said. “I haven’t been too far from my best times. I had a (club) championship meet a few weeks ago, and I was pretty much right on my best times, which I’m happy with for a midseason meet.”

As a freshman, Story was second in the 200 free in 1:43.95 and third in the 100 free in 47.23. The winner of the 100 free two years ago was Quintin McCarty, who now swims at North Carolina State and is a World Junior record holder and the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion in both the 50 and 200 freestyle events.

“My freshman year, that was the most pressure I felt,” Story said. “I was racing McCarty, who is crazy fast, and I was in the lane right next to him. It was very intimidating.”

Story then decided to sit out the high school swimming season as a sophomore to focus on training and competing at the club level.

“We were a little disappointed, but I told him that the door was always open,” Stewart said. “I’ve known a lot of club swimmers who take the year off and end up coming back. We had it in the back of our mind – and that whole year we’d tell him, ‘Wish you were here.’ When he came back, there were no regrets and we had open arms.”

Said Story: “I would say it benefitted me. I missed Josh Dowlin’s senior year and a couple of others’, but really grinding out those club practices helped me as an athlete and a student at the same time – I wasn’t leaving early for (high school) meets and missing classes.”

Story said he learned to better balance his workload, which helped lead to his return to high school swimming last season while also working at the club level. In fact, he has usually practiced with his club team the past two seasons.

“He’s pretty easy to coach,” Stewart said. “It’s a little more laid-back in high school, and that’s why I’m a strong supporter of club sports – I know they’re getting the workouts they need in club. I was a club swimmer myself. For high school, we’ve got all different levels of swimmers and we fight for pool space. He gets a better quality practice at club.

“When he’s here, he’s a leader and he’s a good role model for the younger guys. We appreciate him when he does come to the high school practices because of his leadership. He was voted one of the captains last year as a junior.”

Returning as a junior, he was no longer awed by other competitors.

“This past year was more having fun with it, seeing what I could do in prelims and then just trying to win in the finals,” Story said. “And that’s what I ended up doing.”

Story typically spends 10 to 14 hours a week in the pool, depending on his high school meet schedule. He spends time on homework after school and before club practice in Thornton, then after practice while waiting for freshman sister Juliet to finish her own swim practice before the drive home.

“It’s pretty packed,” Story said. “On club nights I don’t get home until 9 or 9:15.”

On the national level, Story has seen the sights while challenging himself.

“This past year was pretty big for me,” he said. “I went to the Winter Juniors meet in Austin, Texas, in December – it’s the biggest meet I’ve been to, for sure. There were No. 1 recruits there from every state. I was getting smoked out there. But it was cool to dip my feet into a huge-level meet. That’s a high-level pool.

“I met Leon Marchand (who won four individual gold medals at the Paris Olympics last summer), Shaine Casas (a world champion), Simone Manuel (past multiple Olympic gold medalist) … and they were all just training there. Obviously I’m not on their level, but I was in the same building doing the same thing as them. It was cool to see those levels of performance.”

Story’s combination of hard work and talent has landed him a scholarship at Illinois-Chicago.

“I loved the campus and the city as well,” Story said. “I talked to my parents about it and reached the conclusion – my mom has a bunch of friends and family in Chicago – they think it will be a good next four years for me and I agree.”

But first comes the completion of the high school season.

“We just moved up to a brand-new league, and we’re swimming with a lot of 5A schools,” Stewart said. “It’s been a little rough because they are used to winning a lot, but it’s a step up and hopefully when we go to state we’ll be able to hold our own and stay up there. It’s making the guys tougher.”