Columbus East’s Brady Beyer competes in the 100-yard breaststroke during a swimming meet against Columbus North Dec. 13 at Columbus North High School.
Brady Beyer is back in the natatorium at Columbus East.
The Olympians senior spent last year training with the Swim Team Cudas in Mission Viejo, California. With his coach, Mark Schubert, coaching in China for six months, Beyer was left with a decision to stay in California or come back home.
He eventually decided to come back to Columbus. Swimming for East this year, Beyer picked up where he left off two years ago and looks to reach his goals this season.
Beyer said he found out in May that Schubert was leaving for China for the summer. Beyer said his initial plan was to go home for the summer to train so that he could spend some time with his family and friends and then go back to California. However, his plan changed when he found out Schubert was going to be in China through December. Beyer decided to stay home for the swimming season.
Beyer admitted he didn’t have the greatest summer of training. He said a big difference was that when he was in California, he was on own, as opposed to Columbus, where he had more people around him to help him out. He said staying in Columbus will help him clear his mind.
“I thought it would be better for me to stay here and to mentally reset and refocus, especially with college and what I want to do with that and where I want to go,” Beyer said. “I think it was good for me to have some fun and do the high school season because these are all my guys, I love them to death, so I think it was good for me to come back and do this as a reset.”
Beyer said there’s some similarities and differences between training in California and here at East. He said the Olympian coaches have been great in communication with Schubert. Beyer said Schubert is like a “wizard” in writing down and figuring out what swimmers need at certain times of the year.
Swimming at a top level requires plenty hours of training. To start his day, Beyer said he is practicing at East from around 5:15 to 7 a.m., but could be a few minutes sooner or later depending on the day. In California, he would train from 4:45 to 7 a.m. and around 3 to 5 p.m. His weight sessions would be three days a week in California and are the same in Columbus.
Beyer’s plan following high school is that he will likely swim at Indian River Junior College in Florida for a year or two. After consulting with Schubert and Club Olympia coach Jennifer Brinegar, they felt this was the best route to choose to make him a more versatile swimmer.
“They had some really good swimmers and some really good coaches that were there earlier in their careers before they went to other places,” Beyer said. “They think this would be a good fit to let me mature a little bit and my body to get stronger, and then work a little more on my speed.”
Having Beyer return to the Olympians has been a big boost to the boys program, and they are poised to have a big season this year.
“It’s big for the program. It also picks up the junior boys and sophomore boys that we have. Last year, with Brady being out certainly affected us. Those boys that are still here managed to really have a great season and some of that was Brady setting the tone,” East coach Doug Trueblood said. “Having him come back finally brings home some of that work ethic and that drive of pushing harder and driving more consistent speed work and distance work and keeping a positive attitude. I think that drives the culture. You have a guy like Brady come in and really knock down the sets and perform at a high level, the other guys and girls, they see that and aspire and push themselves to get closer to where he’s at.”
