Boyd Snags Gamer of the Week Honors
Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald are pleased to present this week’s Gamer of the Week to freshman, Bradley Boyd of the Hurricane High School Boys swim team.
Every now and then an athlete will enter the high school ranks as a freshman and break onto the scene as a star in their respective sport from the get-go. That has been the case thus far for Hurricane freshman, Bradley Boyd. Bradley has gone through the first half of the 2019-2020 season yet to lose an individual event. Hurricane as a team took home first place in the December 14, Wild Winter Blast Swim Meet, with Bradley capturing 1st place in the 200 m Medley, 200 m Freestyle, and 500 m Freestyle. The 200 m Freestyle Relay team he is on took second place by trailing first place by only 0.37 seconds. Boyd has his eyes on the state meet and going as far as he can in his inaugural high school season. “My goals are to improve on my personal best times in each event and try to make it to states. As a team, we want to send as many people to states as we can while having fun and enjoying the process along the way,” stated Bradley.
Boyd is a dedicated swimmer that works at his craft year-round stating, “I started swimming for sport when I was 5 or 6 years old and joined the WV Wild Club team around 8 years old. I really enjoyed working with the coach there and it inspired me to start taking it more and more seriously and putting time into it.” When not swimming for the Redskins, he’s putting in many hours at the local YMCA swimming with his club team and working out to get bigger, faster, and stronger in the pool. Girls team coach, Kendra White stated, “Brad works really, really hard. He puts in a lot of hours preparing and training.” Boys coach, John Boyd, has the unique pleasure of being a first-time coach of the Hurricane High School coach this year, but also coaching his son, Bradley. He noted that it’s Bradley’s work ethic that makes him the swimmer he has become. “As a Dad, it’s really great to see his hard work paying off. He’s very dedicated and wants to improve. He swims about 2 hours a day after school, lifts weights and works out for an hour and a half, then comes back to swim with our high school team. From a coaching perspective, it’s good to have him on our team contributing to our success as a freshman, being a member of some of our relay teams, and hopefully making it to states and having success there as well,” said Coach Boyd.
Bradley states that his favorite part of swimming is the camaraderie within the team, the coaches making it a fun atmosphere, and the ability to travel and compete in different locations. “I have a lot of friends within our team, but also on other team’s through my experience on my club team, so just seeing everyone at different meets makes for a really fun time,” stated Boyd.
Bradley would like to swim in college, however, has a few more years to figure out where he will go and what he will study. He plans to play tennis in the spring for the Redskins and continue to swim for the WV Wild club team in the offseason.
Please look for other local high school athletes to be named in next week’s male Gamer of the Week Sponsored by Teays Physical Therapy Center, Inc. and The Putnam Herald.