Freshman Ryan Tierney knows that you get out of life what you put into it. Ryan has been busy all year, always running from place to place to finish what he needs to do. He has had a very full plate this year between swimming, school, friends, and all the clubs that he partakes in. While anyone else would probably break down under so much pressure, Ryan is used to it. “I have to carry around a lot of things, I have to be in a lot of places on a given day,” he said, “but I’m kind of used to it by now and I think the rewards is definitely worth the extra hassle.”

In addition to all he does at Regis Jesuit, Ryan takes on more activities outside of school. This summer, he is using his passion for swimming to become a summer league coach at his neighborhood pool. In addition, he is going to try to get involved in playing Taps at for veterans funerals. Taps is a military bugle call that is performed at dusk, during flag ceremonies, or during military funerals. He wants to give back to the community as much as he can, because some of the veterans would usually not be able to have this tune played.

When asked if he would ever settle down on focus on one passion, he laughed. “Well to be perfectly honest with you it is not so much that I want to be involved in the school, it is just that I have always liked a lot of things.” He enjoys a wide variety of things and he takes that as his motivation to continue doing what he does. Ryan is a pretty unique individual and he knows it. “I’m kind of a rare breed, I’m very into math and schemes but I also enjoy the liberal arts as well,” he said. As of right now, it seems like Ryan does not plan to clear his schedule anytime soon. All these activities keep him busy, but he enjoys the work for the reward in the end.

Right now, Ryan’s main focus is on the high school swim season. Hard sets and long practices are going away, to be replaced by resting for taper. Taper is when a swimmer has shorter practices and super easy sets to get ready for the championship meets that come at the end of the year. Ryan swims the hundred butterfly often and he hopes to make his state time in the upcoming A-league meet at Heritage High School.

At the end of each day, Ryan stays dedicated to what he does. When asked what word sums up who he is back he answered “resilient, I really take pride in working hard in everything that I do despite setbacks.” When Ryan broke his arm a few years back, he fought hard to come back to the sport he loves. Ryan had to work extremely hard and spend many long hours at the pool to get back in swimming shape to finally be able to make progress again. He takes challenges like this as a positive thing, so he can learn from them and get back to what he loves to do: be himself.