Enterprise Sports Writer

HIGH POINT – Most swimmers who get the chance to swim on college teams started young and devoted their entire lives to the pool.

Not Cara Chance. The Wesleyan Christian Academy senior actually walked away from the sport for a few years, trying her hand at soccer and gymnastics.

But ...

“Swimming was what I loved, so I started back up again freshman year with STAR Aquatics,” Chance said. “It was hard getting back into it, but it was worth it. I just love it.”

Chance was part of a signing ceremony last week as the school honored four college-bound student-athletes. She’s the only one who inked an NCAA Division I deal, set to swim for the Radford Highlanders.

The Big South Conference school competes in the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association, a collection of schools from the Big South, Southern, Atlantic Sun and Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences. The Big South only has two colleges with swimming and diving programs: Radford and VMI.

Chance’s decision to swim for Radford proved fairly easy. She was considering College of Charleston, Georgia Southern and Lenoir-Rhyne. “I had three requirements for a school,” she said. “The big thing was women’s swimming – that narrowed it down a lot. I wanted a mid-size school, nothing really big or really small; and third, I want to get involved in campus outreach.”

Chance started swimming at a young age and was competing year-round as an elementary school student before leaving the sport. When she came back with STAR and the Trojans for her high school years, it became apparent that she was gifted enough to swim at the next level.

“My junior year I was talking to a bunch of different people,” Chance said. “I had put in the effort for so long – ‘Gosh, can I do this in college?’ But I knew I was prepared after talking to my coaches.”

Chance primarily swam the 100 fly, 100 back, 100 free and 200 free for STAR’s Doug Cornish and Wesleyan’s Mary Kay Bell. She plans to compete in those same events at Radford, where she’ll also major in biology with an eye toward occupational therapy.

And it might just be a good thing Chance already took off a few years, because she’s certainly back in full-time swim mode for the foreseeable future.

“Everything has been good,” Chance said. “My club team, we’re just like a little family. We’re there every morning with each other at 5 o’clock. That kind of creates a bond.”