Boys’ Swimmer of the Year: Serra’s Brooks Taner

Yet Taner did not start getting serious about swimming until just before high school. In a relatively short amount of time by athletics standards, Taner has developed into one of the top swimmers in the state, wrapping up his four-year high school career with a West Catholic Athletic League title, a top-5 Central Coast Section finish, a fourth straight berth in the state meet and a second consecutive Daily Journal Boys’ Swimmer of the Year honor.

“I had always swam, but I didn’t really like swimming (when I was really young),” Taner said. “[My parents] were very careful [about making it too competitive too soon]. They knew (I had talent). They could tell. But train too much, too early, you can burn out.”

Like most competitors, though, Taner thought he could have done more this season.

“This senior year, it wasn’t quite what I expected. I was doing a different type of training,” said Taner, adding new Serra coach, his dad Ugur, focused more on heavy work to improve speed and power, instead of the yardage-based system employed by the previous coach.

“We really didn’t know how we would perform. … It was the first time doing that training, so there was a learning curve,” Taner said.

Some would wonder why Taner would change something that had worked for the last three years with the Padres. He had already established himself as one of the top swimmers in the section during his first three years at Serra.

But given Taner’s relative lack of serious, competitive training, just about anything he does differently could be considered new. Taner didn’t give serious consideration to swimming competitively until after playing baseball for a couple of years.

“At the age of 12, I was like, ‘I don’t want to play baseball anymore.’ So I dropped it and just started swimming,” Taner said. “Swimming full time allowed me to get more training under my belt. I was only training one hour, five days a week … but I started dropping a lot of time.”

Results show Taner’s parents knew what they were doing. He has developed into one of the better butterfliers in the state and is also a solid freestyler. He won the WCAL 100-yard butterfly with a time of 49.69 and finished third in 200 freestyle, with a 1:42.09.

He lowered both those times in the CCS finals, posting a fourth-place finish in the 100 fly with a 49.40 and was seventh in the 200 free, posting a time of 1:41.17.

For the fourth year in a row, his CCS butterfly result qualified Taner for the state meet, where he posted his fastest time of the season, making the 100 fly “A” final and finishing ninth with a time of 49.00.

While Taner had hoped for better results, it wasn’t from a lack of working hard. He trained twice a day during the season — a 5 a.m. session with his club team, Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics, and then an after-school workout with the Serra squad.

“The morning practices were hard because they were early in the morning,” Taner said. “Up at 4 (in the morning) in Half Moon Bay to get there (to Stanford) on time.”

But it’s that kind of dedication and hard work that helped Taner secure a scholarship to swim at University of Arizona — his mom’s alma mater. There, Taner hopes to take the next step in his swimming development.

“I still think I haven’t trained to my full potential. I’ve never really lifted weights. I joined PASA midway through my sophomore year. I’ve only been [going to morning practices] for a year and a half,” Taner said. “My experience in the sport and the amount of serious training I’ve had (is still very limited). … I still feel I have a lot to learn.”