BY JON R. LAFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — As Brian Holmes travels to Austin today to compete in this weekend’s state swimming and diving championships at the Texas Swim Center at the University of Texas, the McAllen Memorial senior will mark the beginning of the end of his high school career in the pool.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Holmes said. “I don’t think it will until it’s over.”
This year is Holmes’ fourth trip to state. He will compete in the boys 100-yard backstroke as well as a member of the boys 200 medley relay, where he will swim backstroke as the team’s first leg.
Holmes’ final year for the Mustangs has been a record-breaking affair.
“He set some lofty goals for himself this year,” Memorial coach Roxanne Balducci said. “He wants to break records at every pool he goes to.”
Holmes did just that during regional competition in Brownsville earlier this month. There, he set a new personal best and pool record with a time of 52.66 seconds in the boys 100 backstroke, beating his previous best time by nine-hundredths of a second.
“At the end of the race, you just turn around and hope (the scoreboard) is something good,” Holmes said.
For all his accomplishments this season, Holmes still has one goal to ascertain — advance from Friday’s preliminaries to Saturday’s finals for the first time. To qualify for the finals, a swimmer must finish in the top eight during the preliminary events.
“We’ve talked about what his goals are,” Balducci said. “And we talked about whether we were going to go for it at prelims or hold back a little bit. I think he needs to go for it.”
For all his achievements and success, Holmes entered the pool only as a last resort.
“Swimming was the last sport I tried,” he said. “I was terrible at everything else. I was uncoordinated. I could not hit or catch a ball.”
Holmes began swimming at the age of 10 when he and older brother William joined the McAllen Swim Club at the urging of then-neighbor and current teammate Marco Benavides. Benavides will also compete at state in the boys 200 freestyle.
Though Holmes qualified for state as an alternate his freshman year, he did not enjoy himself.
“I thought I’d be a lot faster without having to try hard,” Holmes said. “After the year finished, I thought, ‘Well, that kind of sucked,’ I was still dropping times, but compared to everyone else, I wasn’t that good. I wanted to get first.”
Beginning his sophomore year, Holmes doubled-down on his training and attended every morning practice, something he failed to do the year prior. His times dropped as his confidence rose.
Though Holmes seems shy at times and speaks softly, he is a competitor at his core. So much so, his desire to be the best has backfired. The swimmer missed six weeks of pool time after inflaming both of his shoulders, the by-product of overuse during practices and meets.
“It’s awful,” Holmes said. “It’s like starting over. It’s not a fun experience.”
Despite the setback, Holmes is on the precipice of state once more and will be cheered on once more by the coach he’s so fond of.
“I’ve known Coach for so long,” Holmes said. “She’s like a second mom to me. She’s taught me everything from hard work, to determination, having a positive mentality and leadership.”