- May 3, 2024
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As a freshman on the Spruce Creek swim team, Joseph Yim swam the last leg of the relay race in the state championship.
The Hawks came in last place.
But by the time Yim touched the wall, there was no outstretched hand to help him out of the pool, no hug from his teammates and no words of encouragement: He was all alone.
“We were the losing guys and all of my teammates, because I was the last leg, they just left me,” said Yim, who’s now a junior on rival Atlantic’s swim team. “I said to myself that I would not let that happen to anyone else.”
Although the Sharks lost to Matanzas in their meet at the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club in Palm Coast on the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 5, Yim could be seen stalking around the pool during his teammates’ races, cheering them on as hard as he could.
“I think cheering for your teammates is one of the most important things you can do,” he said. “We are a team. We should be cheering for one another no matter how much we’re winning or losing by.”
Yim transferred from Spruce Creek to Atlantic for his sophomore season. He’s already the Sharks’ fastest swimmer. On Thursday, the 16-year-old went head-to-head with the Pirates’ top boys swimmer Brendan Zagumennikh in the 100-meter butterfly. Yim beat the Matanzas senior by inches.
He wasn’t always a fast swimmer, though.
Yim, who started swimming at the age of 10 because his parents wanted him to get some exercise, had to work at it. Every week, from Monday to Saturday, for two hours a day, Yim was in the pool, working to get better, faster, stronger.
So far, he’s competed at the state level and has even been a finalist in some of Team USA’s meets.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” said Yim, who has dreams to eventually swim at the collegiate level. “A lot of tears and puking. And it’s not fun, but it’s what you have to do.”
But despite his own personal success, it all comes back to his teammates: win or lose. It’s an atmosphere Atlantic coach Kristin Lochte-Keeler, who first coached Yim when he joined the Daytona Beach Speed youth club team as a 10-year-old, has helped foster.
“To hear him say he was so happy and so glad he transferred because he felt like he was a part of a family now made me happy,” she said. “He felt like he was part of a team. And that’s one thing I really work hard on, is making sure my kids feel like they’re part of a family, they feel like they’re part of a team, they feel like they’re a part of something. They’re not just a number on a sheet.
“He’s a quirky kid, but I love him to death.”
