The first thing many people think of when they hear about weekly hours is a job. That seems to be a pretty typical thing around here; students get jobs to have extra spending money so they can stop asking ma and pa for cash to go out.

Twenty-five hours a week is a reasonable number to work during a school week, maybe a little above average. Most students will make minimum wage, $8.50 an hour, which comes out to about $212.50, before taxes, that is. The drawn-out process of getting the money can be tough; many kids hate the actual process of working, getting up early, putting on a uniform, spending all day dealing with unruly customers. Now, picture this: those 25 hours are spread out over six days a week, twice a day every week, most days, all year. That is, of course, minus the four-week vacation.

This is the case for LHS senior Matt Harrington, only he doesn’t spend his time bagging groceries for the neighbors. Rather, he spends all of that time in the pool.

“It varies as the season goes on,” Harrington explained as he walked through a week of practice. “I’d say, during the heat of the season, we are in there three to four hours a day, with a lot more strength and out-of-the-pool conditioning going on one to two hours a day. Well, we have 10 practices a week, they range from two to four hours. We have four weeks off every year, we have Sundays off every week. We have Wednesday mornings and Saturday afternoons [off], that’s it. It  makes the late starts really fun, you go from waking up at 4:45 every day to 7:30 on Wednesdays, it’s so great.”

That’s right. It all adds up to 25 hours a week in the pool.

Most of Libertyville’s students complain about spending just 50 minutes of gym in the pool, let alone an hour. But for Harrington, this is his life outside of his school, a life he claims started out of necessity.

“My mom can’t swim that well, so she wanted both of her boys to be able to save her in the event of her needing saving,” Harrington reminisced. “So we were both put into swim lessons very early. I kind of ran with it, we put me on a swim team, and the rest is history.”

The need grew into a love for the sport as he furthered in his swimming career. The competition stepped up when he moved to Illinois from northern Wisconsin. Harrington likened the leap up from a YMCA team to Cats Aquatic to switching from recreational league soccer to joining a travel program. Cats Aquatic, the Libertyville-Vernon Hills based swim program, runs fall, spring and summer while high school season is over the winter.

Club swimming provides a more competitive platform to perform than high school season. Though the school season has pool priority over club, club provides a wider array of challengers.

“[Club] is more competitive,” Harrington explained. “We are competing much more nationally whereas in high school we are competing much more locally against Stevenson [and] Warren. In club I’ll go to a meet in Wisconsin against guys that are swimming all the way from Green Bay; in high school the farthest we compete is downstate.

Though national opponents provide for a more competitive nature, Harrington’s school accomplishments are nothing to be glanced over. Multiple top-three finishes at state, even more top-five finishes and countless pool records. More specifically, he has qualified for state sixteen times at LHS. Sophomore year he placed fifth in the 50 free and third in the 100 fly while also swimming in the 200 medley and 400 free relays. Junior year he placed second in the 100 fly and took part in all three of the team’s relays. Harrington was an integral part of the team’s state-record 200 medley relay. This past season he placed fourth in the 200 free and third in the 100 fly, while also swimming the two freestyle relays: 200 and 400.

Harrington’s accolades come with little surprise to those who know him well. According to Vlad Pyshnenko, who has been coaching Harrington for three years in Cats Aquatic, the most impressive part about Harrington is his dedication to the sport.

“COMMITMENT! Commitment was the key for Matt,” Pyshnenko stated in an email. He is a three time medal winner for the Russian swim team who brought home a gold and two silvers at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. “[Whether] he was tired or not​ after each practice, he committed to his extra routine exercises.”

His commitment to the sport is clear: during his four-week break, he runs to stay in shape; however, he itches to get back in the pool after about a week. Harrington’s teammates advocate for his dedication as well, senior and fellow varsity swimmer Mark Boynton admires Harrington’s work ethic.

“I would say his all around dedication to the sport [is impressive],” Boynton said. “He swims year round, morning practices, afternoon practice, sticking to his diet; he is always researching the sport, nutrition, anyway that he can get better.

Swimming is not all work and no play though. Harrington, Boynton and their teammates  create an environment conducive for work and fun.

“[Harrington] is good at being serious and working hard but also being fun,” Boynton remarked. “The swim team is all about that, balancing our fun and our goofiness with working hard. He is really good at helping [create] that atmosphere.

Harrington’s year-round effort has paid off big time for him. He was recruited by some of the top swimming schools–including the number-one school in the nation, Cal Berkeley–and he ultimately chose Princeton, the winners of the 2015 Ivy League Championship.

“My crowning achievement, in my opinion, is getting to swim at Princeton next year and getting recruited as heavily as I have. So to be able to make a relationship and connection with all the guys on [Princeton] I am very proud of and very excited for.

Upon his arrival to Princeton, Harrington hopes to add to the team in whatever way possible. Whether that includes filling in on relays, or swimming his favorite events, he is ready to help out his future team. Pyshnenko sees Harrington having a very successful college career.

“​I think in college, we will see huge improvement,” Pyshnenko explained. “It’ll be [a] different Matt! [A] very FAST Matt!​ [He has] a lot of distractions right now.​ He needs to ‘clear’ his head and trust his body a little more.”

Mrs. Sara Gourley, Harrington’s former AP Statistics teacher, finds that a lot of what makes Harrington competitive in the pool also can be applied to his studies.

“He is very driven,” Mrs. Gourley said. “He wants to succeed; he is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. Whether that means keeping to his strict diet, keeping to his early-morning and late-night practices, he was able to figure out how to manage his time so that he was able to get everything all done. I think that applies to the classroom as well as the swimming pool.”

Another contributing factor to Harrington’s success in and out of the pool is his attitude. Mrs. Gourley claims that she has never seen Harrington angry. Sure, he has been frustrated, but he is able to channel that frustration into figuring out his problem (whether it be a math problem or some other problem).

Often times when students are both top-tier athletes and scholars, they can get big heads. That is not the case with Harrington.

“Matt just has this quality about him where he is very polite,” Mrs. Gourley explained. “No matter who he is talking to, he’ll make them feel good. When working with other students, he wants them to be heard. He never is bossy or pushy, despite the fact that he is such an amazing athlete and such a good student. He is very humble and very thoughtful.”

A decision on what to study still awaits Harrington. As of now, he plans on majoring in engineering or computer science, but his senior year schedule spurred an interest in statistics and economics (thanks to AP Macro and AP Stats).

Swimming is not the only hobby in which Harrington is nationally recognized. Unknown to many, Harrington has spent time nationally ranked as one of the United States’ top Rubik’s cube solvers. Speedcubing is just as it sounds: competitors try and solve the cube faster than their opponents.

“One that I write about a lot for college scholarships is that I competitively solve Rubik’s cubes, and it gets chicks! I’m kidding, it doesn’t,” Harrington remarked. “I’m globally ranked in some stuff there, but I haven’t done that in a while.”

On a more serious note, Harrington’s time outside of the pool is largely spent in the same domain. He is one of the brain trusts for the Illinois Swimming Board of Directors, where he holds athlete opinions in high regard.

“I’m a representative on the Illinois Swimming Directors, which is the governing body that presides over all things swimming in Illinois. I represent the voices of the 20,000-some athletes that are in Illinois swimming.”

Harrington’s team-first attitude and dedication to the sport will certainly help him succeed at Princeton, where he will likely swim more the 25 hours each week.