Phillips a “stick” of a guy with big potential

“I played intramural volleyball last night with one of my professors,” freshman swimmer Zach… “I played intramural volleyball last night with one of my professors,” freshman swimmer Zach Phillips says incredulously. “He was pretty cool. You can make friends with just about anybody.”

Instances like this make up Phillips’ favorite part about Pitt – the people.

Phillips has also found a niche on the Pitt men’s swim team. There is a group of eight freshman swimmers in Phillips’ dorm in Lothrop Hall.

“It’s like family,” he said.

“We’re all really close. Sometimes people ask me, ‘Where are you going?’ And I’ll say, ‘Back home,’ and they’ll say ‘What?’ And I’ll say, ‘No, Lothrop, the place where it’s at.'”

Phillips also said the camaraderie makes getting up for practice easier.

“It’s hard,” he says. “In the morning, it’s like 5 o’ clock and your alarm’s going off, and you’re just like, ‘No, not another one.’ But you have all these other people doing it with you, and they’re like ‘Come on you gotta go, you gotta go.’

“We’ve had people miss practice because you couldn’t get them up,” he says. “You’ll be knocking on their door, and they wouldn’t wake up. I actually did that. I was the first one to miss practice. But I had to make that one up, and I regret it now because it was hard,” he admits.

Despite the missed practice, Phillips’ coach Chuck Knoles says that the swimmer’s work ethic is incredible.

“He’ll do anything you want him to do, and then some,” Knoles said. “He’s just a little stick of a guy, but he’s going to grow, he’s going to fill out.”

Another one of Phillips’ characteristics that stands out to Knoles is his biting sense of humor.

“I use that term knowing exactly what it is,” Knoles said. “There’s a little bit of truth behind the humor that may or may not be a little jab. He doesn’t miss anything; he sees everything that’s going on. His humor gets him through practice, but also keeps everybody else on their toes when they’re around him.”

Knoles also praised Phillips’ versatility.

“He is multi-talented. He can do a whole range of events. He can do freestyle, IM, he’s getting pretty good at breaststroke, he can do butterfly. It’s very unusual because what we’re seeing nowadays is kids that are specializing in just one or two events.”

Phillips’ favorite event is the mile, he also likes freestyle in general, and last week Phillips led the 1000 free event, placing first with a 9:55:66 time.

The next day, he won the 500 free with a time of 4:42:95, and the 1000 free with a time of 9:43:41.

There haven’t always been perfect moments, though. Phillips remembers the not so favorable times, as well.

“When I was like 14 we were doing some breaststroke sets,” Phillips recounts, “and the person behind me started laughing. I was like, ‘What is so funny?’ And they were like, ‘You have a huge hole in your suit.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, you’re kidding?’ And I kind of pushed off the wall.

“When I got to the wall on the other end I reached back and there was literally no back to my suit – had ripped the entire way. So I’m running down the pool deck trying to hold my suit together,” he says.

“It’s funny now, but then it was like, “Oh no, my life is over,” he laughs.

Another early memory is how Phillips got his start in the sport.

“I started swimming because my sister, who’s older than me, started swimming and my parents said, ‘Well, you can swim, because then we can take you to the same practice,” Phillips said. “So I got into it because of her. I was probably 7 or 8.”

Ten years later, Phillips has received high praise from a man who has coached a lot of promising athletes. Knoles’ walls are covered with first place plaques and pictures from past teams.

“People give me these things and I just put them up. I don’t even know what they’re for,” he jokes. “I’m boring. I’ve just been here a long time. They come in and dust my desk off once a year and make sure I’m still alive. My favorite things are pictures of the kids.”

Knoles has high praise for those teams gone by, and for Phillips, as well.

“Zach is probably going to end up being someone along the lines of an Eric Limkemann, he was one of our best swimmers ever,” Knoles said. Limkemann is now one of Knoles’ assistants.

“Eric’s on the walk of fame, and I think Zach has that potential.”