Top swimmer hopes to make history

SLIDESHOW: A life Aquatic

His initial wake-up call arrives at 4 a.m. with the sound of his cell phone ringer going off. Jameson Hill usually stays in bed when he hears the alarm, but the tone still rouses him from his slumber.

The second ring comes a few minutes later. This time, Hill is up without delay and heads to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Just in case Hill needs one final push, the cell is pre-set to ring a third time, but it's clearly unnecessary. He's on the move by now.

After grabbing a towel and a suit and putting them in a bag to prepare for swim practice, he heads to the kitchen and eats a bowl of cereal. Then he and his coach Rick Benner leave their house in Manassas and make the five-minute drive to the Jeff Rouse Aquatic Center for a 90-minute workout that starts at 4:45.

Even though it is challenging at times, Hill never sleeps in or slacks off. It's understood. Four days a week, he begins his mornings this way.

It's a lot to ask of an 18-year-old, especially when you factor in school and a three-hour afternoon swim practice followed by homework and then lights out no later than 11 p.m.

But Hill doesn't complain. He sees the benefits.

He competed head-to-head against 14-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps in December and travelled last fall to Sweden and Germany with the U.S. National Team. He's earned a full scholarship to swim at the University of Georgia. And he's posted six all-American times in the 100, 200 and 500 free while breaking a host of records, including a 33-year-old one in the 500 free last month at Villanova that was originally set by a medalist at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Of course, if things like early-morning rises, a cramped schedule and a limited social life were the only tradeoffs in becoming an elite swimmer, then the Savannah, Ga., native would be like many other athletes his age devoted to their sport.

But he's not.

As a high school junior, he left behind his family and friends in the only place he's ever lived and moved nine hours north to a place where he only knew Benner.

He also left behind life as a public-school student to enroll at Seton, a small, orthodox Catholic school in Manassas. Not Catholic himself, Hill suddenly found himself among a 350-person student body who attended Mass twice a week, adhered to a dress code and in many cases had known each other since enrolling in the school as seventh-graders.

Try balancing all that without letting your grades slip, your attitude sour or your athletic achievements suffer. And yet, Hill has posted better than a 3.0 grade point average and connected in a community that's embraced him as one of their own while still performing at some of the highest levels of his sport.

The reason is simple. He came here on a mission with one goal in mind: Push yourself with a work ethic that never settles for mediocrity and a humility that never takes anything for granted.

The support he's received from Benner and his wife Greta as well as Seton has only helped him reach his objectives.

"He follows his coach from Georgia, which is something I personally couldn't do and then he comes to a school, where it's not his religion and he doesn't know anybody," said Daniel Koehr, a senior at Seton who swims with Hill. "That's what separates him a lot. He came to Virginia for one reason to swim. He's focused on that and doesn't let go of it."

Leaving home

When Benner was hired as the head coach and general manager for the Manassas-based Quantico Devil Dolphins Swim Club in September of 2008, he wanted to bring Hill with him to Virginia.

The move made sense.

Since he began training with Benner in 2005 as a member of the Savannah Swim Team, Hill had seen immediate results.

Hill already had the work habits and the desire since he began competitive swimming at age 8. He even had the bloodlines with a mom who swam in college and an older sister who is currently an all-conference swimmer at Franklin & Marshall College (Pa.).

But Hill needed a seasoned coach to push him even further and Benner was the perfect choice.

A high school swimmer in New Jersey who swam at the University of Pennsylvania, Benner has coached for more than 20 years and has mentored, among others, Megan Quann, who at age 16 won two gold medals at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

Through his own experiences as a swimmer along with learning under several influential coaches, Benner adopted a training regimen that focuses on endurance rather than speed. Hill, for example, swims an average of 85,000 meters a week, the aerobic equivalent of running a marathon every day.

Benner also emphasizes technique. Although Hill's slim 6-foot-4 170-pound frame seems tailor-made to give him an advantage with his long arms and legs, Benner focuses less on physical appearance and more on mechanics.

The workouts are intense under Benner, but the atmosphere remains fun enough at times to break up the threat of monotony.

More than anything, though, Benner wants to teach swimmers who are self-starters.

In Hill, Benner found the ideal student.

"It's about work ethic, a mental toughness and perseverance," Benner said. "[Jameson] is one of those kids who is mentally tough. He trains when no one else may be doing it. The other day, he was doing 100 box jumps on his own an hour before practice."

Benner, who had taken in swimmers before as a coach, asked Hill's mom, Jill Royal, for permission to continue to train him.

"He had my full support," Royal said. "We have similar parenting skills and styles so there was no reason to second guess it."

And Hill had no issues with it.

"He had his bags packed three days before leaving," Royal said.

To make it official, Royal and Benner set up a joint guardianship, where Benner was legally responsible for Hill's education and taking care of things like health care.

The only remaining question mark was finding Hill a school.

Trying to minimize the adjustment to a new area, Benner and Royal both thought that a small-school setting would be best for Hill. They also wanted a school that offered rigorous academics, a family atmosphere and strong moral instruction, while also remaining geographically close to QDD's swim facility in Manassas.

Seton met all the requirements. The only catch was the school did not have any openings in the fall of 2008.

A secretary at Seton suggested Royal fax a letter to Dr. Anne Carroll, explaining the situation.

Carroll, who founded Seton in 1975 and continues to head the co-educational school, responded to Royal's request by having a face-to-face interview with Hill. Once she was done, she informed Royal that Seton would admit her son. So touched by that, Royal burst into tears.

"She was kind," Royal said. "More than anything, she was reacting to a need."

A new setting

Dan Vander Woude, Seton's boys basketball coach and athletic director, remembers how little fanfare there was surrounding Hill's arrival.

"I see this 6-foot-4 kid walking through the hallways and here I am the basketball coach and the AD and I don't know about it," said Vander Woude, who is also a 1988 Seton graduate and considers Hill the most accomplished athlete the 34-year-old school has ever produced. "You would think I would know."

Seton's humble approach to things played a part in that. Hill was not at the school because of his swimming talents. He was there to get an education.

But Hill's own personality was also a factor. Shy by nature, Hill doesn't like drawing attention to himself.

When Hill swam against Phelps last December in a race in Annapolis and finished second to him in the 200-meter freestyle by 6.49 seconds, he remained mostly mum about the experience, talking about it only if asked.

"You get the sense when he's swimming that people think he's a machine," said Seton swim coach Jim Koehr. "It's not reputation. It's just the way he looks."

Although it is rare, Hill does show some emotion at times, a pumped fist following a record-setting performance or a smile when fans cheer his name. He's also prone to getting in teammates faces if he feels they are slacking off or even revealing a slight frown if on the rare occasion he loses a race.

But there's no me-first attitude in anything he does or a sense he deserves special treatment.

Seton has a policy where its students are not allowed to have Walkmans at school-related functions. One time, Hill was listening to one prior to a swim meet and Koehr had to remind him to put it away. Hill obeyed his coach.

"That's a sign that his humility is genuine," Jim Koehr said. "He's not too good for everybody else."

When Hill first arrived at Seton, it took some time for his classmates to see another side to him. Eventually, though, people like Connor Cook, who swims with Hill at Seton and QDD, and Daniel Koehr, broke through.

"He's hilarious but in a subtle way," said Daniel Koehr. "When he says something funny, it's with a straight face so you wonder if he's being serious or not."

Hill currently shares a house with the Benners along with Kameron Ansley, a senior from Savannah who attends Osbourn and has signed with Virginia Tech.

When he is home and has some down time, Hill loves watching ESPN, especially SportsCenter.

According to Benner, Hill has also discovered eBay, which Benner joked seems to bring a package every other day to the house that usually is connected to Hill's favorite team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Hill stays in touch with his family, especially his mom, talking to her over the phone three to four times a week and, thanks to his instruction, through text messages.

But for the most part, he follows the same routine each day. After a morning practice during the week, he heads home to get ready for school. He packs a lunch, which usually consists of two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some yogurt and crackers and then gets a ride to Seton, which is less than a mile from his home.

Wednesday is his only day off from swimming in the morning, which allows him to catch up on any lost sleep. But the schedule is still the schedule.

Even with the barrage of snow the area has received over the last two weeks, Hill has only missed one practice and that was on a Saturday. Digging out was a chore, but Hill was out shoveling the driveway and the sidewalk to clear the way.

Still despite his youthful energy, the pace wears him down at times.

"Sometimes during the week, it's like 1 a.m. and the light from the TV wakes me up or I fall asleep at my computer," Hill said.

Closing out

One person who was intentionally kept in the dark about Hill's possible admission to Seton was Jim Koehr.

"The office was instructed to not let me know he was applying because I might unduly influence the process," Koehr said. "That's the big joke around campus."

In his eighth year overseeing Seton's swim team, Koehr has led the Conquistadors to boys and girls conference titles each year, while also producing two all-Americans in Nevin Cook and Kevin Koehr.

But there's no question he's never had a swimmer like Hill.

"You could see him swim and dive into the water and realize he was different with how fast he is and how sleek he is," Koehr said.

From the start, Koehr realized that Hill's first priority was to QDD so he saw no reason to get territorial. In Koehr's mind, it's what's best for the swimmer. As a result, he and Benner have a great working relationship.

Hill trains with QDD, but swims competitively for both his club and Seton. Although sometimes there are scheduling conflicts where Hill had to bypass a Seton meet for QDD, he is usually able to get to both.

This weekend, though, he's all Seton's. The Virginia State Independent School Swimming Championships are at the Freedom Center and Hill, in his final high school meet, is expected to follow up on last year's success, when he won state titles in the 200 and 500 free.

Royal was able to attend that meet and came away impressed with how Seton supported her son, from comments by parents to the Seton students who dressed in black and chanted "Jamo, Jamo" when he made his way to the starting block.

Nothing has changed this year.

Royal remembered that when Hill missed over a week of school last fall travelling overseas, Seton made sure someone took notes for him in each of his classes while he was gone.

Things like that remind her why Hill's move to Manassas was the right one.

So as she returns to the stands again this weekend, wearing her Seton swim T-shirt, Royal is thankful her son was so well taken care without him losing sight of any of his goals.

A mother couldn't ask for more.

"You always wish you were there to take care of him because you're his mom and you believe the best person to do it," Royal said. "But you can't be there and he needs to be there so you do what's best for him. He's done great and had a lot of wonderful opportunities. I hope he continues to remember those opportunities that he was given so he can pay it forward."

David Fawcett is the sports editor of the News & Messenger and can be reached at 703-878-8052