Sigonella freshman Brian Burke, 14, is already making waves in the world of competitive swimming. (Courtesy photo)
When Sigonella freshman Brian Burke takes his mark for the first time Saturday at the two-day European Forces Swim League championships at Eindhoven, Netherlands, he’ll be on a roll and on a mission.
The roll?
Burke, 14, has set two league records in his fifth season as a competitive swimmer. He holds the EFSL’s 13-14 age group mark in the long-course 200-meter individual medley and in the five-race pentathlon. In the 200 IM, he clocked 2 minutes, 25.07 seconds to surpass the 2:25.79 swum by Kilian Korth of Lakenheath in 2010.
And if a mark in the 200 IM, involving mastery of the sport’s four strokes – freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly – isn’t proof enough of Burke’s versatility, his league record of 6:51.33 in the pentathlon – combined times for the 200 IM, and 100 free, breast, back and fly – was 2:49 faster than a mark which had stood since 2001.
The mission?
“I want to swim in college,” Burke said by telephone on Monday, “and maybe after that.”
Right now, both levels seem eminently possible. Since taking up the sport, more or less out of the blue as a Sigonella Swordfish 10-year-old who would eventually win his age-group championship that rookie season, Burke has spent his EFSL campaigns putting up impressive times and his summers swimming with clubs in Florida, including the Bolles School in Jacksonville, a national pool power.
“Every coach I’ve had has helped me,” Burke said about his rapid rise, greatly abetted by a succession of coaches with the EFSL’s Swordfish. “Coach Rich (McKeown) got me started, then coach (Kathleen) Kinsey and coach (Lindsey) Vaughn. There were also assistants, Hilton Smith for one. Each one taught me something.”
Burke doesn’t yet swim with an Italian club, although he’s been contacted by a Sicilian club which is a national power in Italy. He hopes to cement that tie in the future, but even without it, he wouldn’t trade his experience at Sigonella for a more competitive Stateside environment.
“All those other swimmers go on buses across town or the state,” he said. “We get to go by plane to Venice and Germany, places that most people only dream of.”
And, given the fully wired world of competitive swimming, Burke’s times are common knowledge in swim circles in the States. He’s known to college coaches.
Burke, who concentrates solely on swimming, credited off-season cross-training and his Swordfish coaches for his progress, but current Sigonella coach Vaughn cited another factor in a Monday night telephone call.
“One of the things that makes him exceptional,” Vaughn said, “is that he has identified at a young age what he wants to do. When you accomplish real feats at age 14, it’s not as hard to motivate yourself as it is for those who haven’t performed at that level.”
Continuing to perform those sorts of feats is crucial, said Burke, who cited the middle two years of high school as a period when many swimmers “plateau.”
“If you can break through that,” he said, “that’s what college coaches look for.”
In addition to raw times, Vaughn cited Burke’s A-student status as a plus for colleges.
“To swim at a top college, you have to be a good student,” she said. “In football or basketball, you might get by just on athletic ability. But swimming doesn’t make money, so swimmers have to be good students who can become student-athletes.”
All that’s in the future, however. This week’s order of business is the championships, which close out a season which began last August.
“It’s a packed weekend,” summarized Burke, who will swim in no fewer than 10 events Saturday and Sunday – eight individual events and two relays. “My age group is pretty competitive. There are a lot of good swimmers.”
Burke didn’t predict any records this week, but left out plenty of hope he might alter the EFSL record book at the Eindhoven facility.
“It’s a fast pool,” he said. “I really like it.”
