From September to December, her day starts the same way. Wake up, stumble out of bed, take her already packed backpack and drive to swim practice at 5:30 a.m. Now, all of the early mornings and hard work have paid off for Senior Ruby Powell. Next year, she will be swimming at the NCAA Division 1 level for the Texas Christian University (TCU) Horned Frogs.

“I started swimming when I was eight, and I did not start to get competitive until I was ten. At that point I was competing at age group “State,” which is the highest level. That was really when I started to realize that I loved swimming,” Powell said.

Her career began in the Coho Swim Club, and she progressed through the program as her skills improved over the years. Swimming on a collegiate team has always been one of Powell’s dreams, even as a young girl. This ambition was noticed quickly by all of Powell’s teammates. Senior and fellow teammate Anna Jakubek, who has swam with Powell for the past nine years, recalls this well.

“Ruby is a very hard worker and is extremely dedicated. I started swimming with her early on, she just always had this drive and will to swim at the D1 level,” Jakubek said.

Beginning her sophomore year, Powell would receive letters from coaches from around the country. When the recruitment process first began, Powell received interest from many “smaller schools,” but as she got closer to her junior year, the offers came from “bigger schools,” the kind Powell had been striving to reach . Until July 1st of her junior year, coaches were not able to contact Powell directly, but eventually she began traveling for official recruitment trips.

“Ruby has always been looking to make changes in order to improve her skills. It has been nice to see her mature as an athlete. She knew that she needed to place in the top 12 at state [tournament] in order to receive some D1 offers, and so she did,” Head Coach John Sullivan said.

A crucial part of Powell’s recruitment process was the various stages mandated by the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for communication between coaches and potential college athletes. It begins with the contact period where face-to-face communication is allowed. This is the time when recruiters can see the athlete compete and visit their high school. Next is the evaluation stage which only allows contact with athletes on the college’s campus. Then, the quiet period marks the end of any communication unless by telephone. Finally, the dead period marks the beginning of full contact between the student-athletes and their parents through telephone calls or written letters. Not only did Powell feel great anticipation during this time, but teammates like Senior Georgina Kokalias were just excited to hear the potential news.

“At practice, as we got closer to November, we would ask Ruby almost every day if she had committed anywhere yet, or was being recruited to any new schools,” Kokalias said.

Although she originally wanted to attend the University of California: Los Angeles (UCLA), Powell was heavily recruited by other division one schools like TCU, Illinois and Minnesota. She visited all three schools and while she did not like Illinois as much as Minnesota Powell decided to give TCU a shot.

“TCU was kind of unexpected for me. They had started recruiting me early on; emailing, sending letters and finally calling me. It felt like they really wanted me.” Powell said.

Powell later visited TCU, and completely fell in love. She was astounded by the “beauty” of the campus, as well as the size of the student body. Powell noticed the friendly atmosphere around campus, the location, and the people and knew this was the school for her.

“The campus [TCU] is perfectly located in relation to restaurants and shopping, and nearby to Dallas and Ft. Worth. Also, everyone was just genuinely very friendly. People said ‘hi’ to me while I was just walking through the campus, and all of my future teammates welcomed me with open arms. I really felt right at home,” Powell said. “Up until I visited TCU, I had not had that feeling of ‘this is the place for me, ’ but I was really happy that I gave it a chance because I found my place.”