LIFE AFTER ATHLETICS

Three successful aquatics athletes talk about life during competition and what happens when they decide to move on.

The glory days of an athlete, when he or she is competing at the top, get a lot of attention. But all of that changes when an athlete decides to give up a sport.

Swimmer Rylee Radke was the first athlete in the history of Clovis Community College to make it to the state championships in any sport. She says that it was fun the first time but not the second.

“I was shocked,” Radke says. She could have continued her swim career another two years but felt burned out and quit. Now she is focusing on finishing her degree and sharing her passion for swimming by coaching children’s swim and water polo.

Samantha Giannetta, a senior swimmer at Fresno State, knows that competing at a division 1 level will have its benefits when it comes to coaching job opportunities.

“Oh, so I don’t have to get up at 5 a.m for practice every morning afterwards. That’s wonderful!” Giannetta says. But she says she feels conflicted that she doesn’t have the time to casually hang out with her friends or to attend more sporting events at Fresno State due to meet and practice schedules.

Jordan Morillo graduated from Fresno State six years ago as a Division 1 swimmer. It takes a certain person to turn pro after college athletics,” Morillo says. She is now working on her master’s degree in education at Fresno State.

All three women say life after athletics isn’t depressing. They are all aquatics coaches and all had backup plans for their lives after athletics.