It’s not a particularly long list, but when Jaxon Kite names the sports he has tried and given up, there seems to be a few. As the junior at Harris County High School searched for a sport, he discovered each time that they all had one common denominator.
“I wasn’t good at anything,” he said with a slight smile.
Kite tried karate, baseball, and wrestling in hopes of finding something to occupy his time and to excel at. Each time produced failure in his opinion, and it wasn’t until his mother suggested swimming that Kite saw his perseverance pay off.
The 5’9” swim athlete started out as a member of local swim club the Columbus Hurricanes. He was 11-years-old when he began competition swimming, and Kite said he immediately knew he had at long last found a sport where success and passion combined.
“I had always had a connection to the water,” Kite said. “I loved swimming from an early age, but I wasn’t thinking about it as something I could do to compete. When I first started swimming with the Hurricanes, I learned quickly I was good at it and that I had a competitive drive.”
For Kite, swimming was transformative, literally. The lean, strong swimmer’s body Kite now possesses was once “chunky.” The more he swam, the more he slimmed down and the faster he became in the water. Eventually, Kite settled into swimming events for the club that proved successful for him.
When it came time to start high school, Kite joined the Harris County High School Tigers swim team. He continued to swim with the Hurricanes while also establishing himself as one of the school’s top swimmers as a freshman. That year, Kite swam the 100-yard butterfly event and the 200-yard individual medley. In the 200 IM, an athlete swims 50 yards each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.
HCHS swim coach Mindy Johnson has been coaching the team for the past 15 years and finds Kite to be an impressive swim athlete.
“An athlete is someone who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina,” Johnson said. “To me, this describes Jaxon. He is good at whatever he is doing whether it’s swimming or lifting weights or doing an ab video. He has the ability to execute any skill well.”
Last swim season Kite was the region champion in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.19. He was also the region runner-up in the 100-yard fly with a time of 1:00.21. Not willing to rest on past laurels, Kite literally came off the block this season with a plan to better last year’s times and performances. Back in December, Kite’s 200 freestyle relay team qualified for the state meet with a time of 1:39.95. The junior is the anchor for the relay team. By that time in the season, he was already close to qualifying for the state meet in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Kite participates in only one other event, the 200 medley relay in which he swims the butterfly, and he hopes to continue to improve his time there as well.
“Jaxon never wants to stop improving,” Johnson said about Kite’s desire to make improvements. “He trains consistently. He is not afraid to try new techniques to get better. If he sees something is not working, he will try a new method. He focuses on every aspect of his events from the start, to breathing, to turns, and to finishes. He studies what he is doing from every angle and puts a plan into action.”
One of Kite’s best traits as a member of any swim team is his sincere yearning for his teammates to do well in competition. Johnson said Kite works to bring fellow swimmers to a higher level and enjoys teaching less experienced swimmers techniques to help them succeed. While Kite does have a benevolent spirit and encouraging personality, he did admit that helping his peers also works in his favor.
“If they get better, then they are better competitors in the water against me,” Kite said. “That pushes me. I want to be the best; therefore, I want to compete against the very best so that I know I earned my place at the top. Of course, the team improves when we each get better, too.”
It’s not hard to imagine Kite moving into next season with a plan to up his game so that he garners the attention of college scouts. He would like to attend Auburn University and has attended several swim camps there. However, Kite is keeping his options open for the time being.
In the meantime, the passionate swimmer continues to pursue a life almost totally geared toward swimming as a year round sport. He swims with the Hurricanes in addition to the Harris County team, which causes the high school athlete to put in approximately 20 hours a week in practices and swim prep. Kite’s regimen extends to his diet, which includes no junk food, drinking water and no other beverages, and eating as healthily as possible.
One other side note about his sincerity for the sport: Kite uses prescription goggles when he swims. He admits that without them he would be sort of “swimming blind.”
Kite made the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer’s All Bi-City Swim Team last year as a sophomore and hopes to do well enough to make the list two more times. Regardless of what success Kite achieves, the swim athlete feels his perseverance to find the right sport for him paid off.
“My only regret is that I didn’t start earlier,” Kite said.
Columbus Valley/February 2017
Harris County High School
Hamilton, Georgia
Written by: Beth Welch | Photos by: George McDuffie
Perseverance Key to Swimmer’s Success
