Swimming didn’t come easily for Jack Roney. In fact, the junior swimmer said it was quite a struggle.
“I was the worst swimmer in my swim class growing up in Orlando. I didn’t learn how to swim until I was 7 years old. My parents tried to get me to swim when I was 4 or 5 years old. It just never worked out,” Roney said. “I never really knew what swimming was. I didn’t know there was actual swim meets until I moved to Charlotte.”
After moving to Charlotte in 1995, his fortunes began to change. Roney started swimming with his sisters and at a local swim club.
Before long, he was making great strides in the pool.
“I jumped in and started beating all my friends who had been already swimming for a couple years,” Roney said. “So that kind of gave me the idea that maybe this is my new sport.”
By the time he was 12, he was swimming year-round. As Roney continued in the sport, he joined the Myers Park High School swimming and diving team, which he said was consistently among the state’s best.
Individually he won a combined five state championships in 2002 and 2003, and he set a North Carolina State Championship Meet record in the 200-yard backstroke.
But when it came to finding a place where he could continue in his sport on the collegiate level, Roney didn’t get much interest.
“To tell you the truth, no one really looked at me. No one really paid attention to my swimming. My coach tried to get my name out there. He contacted other ACC schools — FSU and UNC,” Roney said. “And UNC and Virginia Tech said I could maybe visit in the spring if they had room. They were kind of rude to me.”
In fact, he said Virginia Tech even took a swimmer who had slower times in the pool than him, but didn’t show much interest in Roney.
The scant recruiting attention he received took a toll on him, as he said it left him somewhat unmotivated for his senior season. One school, though, did pursue Roney: N.C. State.
“Chad Onken, who was the assistant here a few years ago, welcomed me. I knew a few guys on the team already, so he gave me the chance,” Roney said. “So I just decided I’d come in, and I might as well try college swimming.”
This season, his third at State, Roney has recorded one win and one second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke as well as a win and a pair of second-place finishes in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Fellow junior Dan Glauber said the lack of interest Roney received in recruiting has been an important motivation for his performance in college.
“People didn’t see his potential,” Glauber said. “And now he’s proving that they made a mistake by not asking him to come to their school.”
In his Wolfpack career, Roney has had the chance to work with Rob Yeager, who he said he has modeled himself after, and Dan Velez, who he calls one of the best swimmers in the country.
But Roney said he and his fellow upperclassmen are trying to make the team more united than in the past.
“I’m just trying to become better friends with all the team and try to hang out with everyone and not play favorites on the team and try to bring the team together as a whole,” Roney said.
At the same time, assistant coach Christopher Woodard said Roney has a great knowledge of the sport.
“He watches other swimmers, and he’s probably a real student of the game. He knows what’s going on with his stroke,” Woodard said. “He knows when it’s good, when it’s bad and how fast he’s going to have to go to get a certain time or to beat one of his opponents.”
Glauber complimented Roney’s optimism and his encouragement of teammates.
“He’s always pushing all the guys. He always wants to do a race at the end of practice because he’s really competitive. And he’s good about it. He’s not a bad competitive-type of person,” Glauber said. “He’s really positive all the time, and [he is] probably one of the most confident people I’ve ever met.”
