Trey Wolfe ’23 swam his first lap at the age of five. By the age of eight, Wolfe was on a competitive team at his local YMCA. Quickly developing a passion for the sport, Wolfe was inspired to pursue his career in swimming at a young age because of his dad and his older teammates.
“I started swimming in the summer with my friends when I was five and joined the local YMCA team when I was eight. The high school kids on the YMCA team inspired me and I looked up to one named Ryan, who was my ‘big brother’ my first year on the team,” wrote Wolfe in an email to The Phillipian.
According to Co-Captain Chris Xia ’23, Wolfe is an example of a leader who can have fun, but also knows when it’s necessary to focus. This quality creates a fun team environment, while allowing the team to excel when swim meets come around.
“He has the best sense of when to be serious and when to joke around. When he’s serious, everyone kind of follows behind him and they’re serious as well. And when he’s joking around, everyone is also having a good time,” said Xia.
With Andover Boys Varsity Swimming combining with the Boys Junior Varsity team this year, the group has nearly doubled in size. Co-Captain Theo Randall ’23 commends Wolfe for taking this change in stride and using it as an opportunity to connect with more swimmers.
Randall said, “He likes to make sure that since there’s 40 kids, [there is] a lot of good communication. He uses his good communication skills to make sure everyone’s on the same page, whether that be simple stuff, [such as] what time practice is, or just general attitude during practice. He makes sure that we’re all, I guess, informed and doing the right thing.”
Ashton Ma ’24 mentioned how Wolfe constantly checks up on his teammates, who appreciate the extra time that he takes to ensure they are feeling well. Like Xia, Ma highlighted Wolfe’s ability to motivate his teammates to focus on the task at hand, particularly when they are struggling to get into the right mindset.
Ma said, “Trey has done a great job. He is always the one that will keep us in check if we’re too talkative or fooling around too much. But he is also ready to have fun with us and he’s always there including everybody.”
Wolfe feels that it is his role as a Co-Captain to inspire his teammates to put in the work at practice, allowing them to persevere throughout the remainder of the season. He also hopes that his teammates learn to value one another, as that is the first step to creating a strong team.
Wolfe wrote, “My goal for the team is for everyone to continue working hard through the last races of the season, while staying humble and disciplined. I motivate the team by leading by example. I try my best to work hard in practices as well as outside of the pool. I value respect more than anything. I think it is absolutely necessary that every member of our team has respect for one another, our coaches, and our opponents.”
