From underdog to top dog, Will Munstermann is one of the success stories on the UMass Men’s Swimming and Diving team. He started swimming at age five because his mom thought it would be a good outlet to expend his energy. His love for the sport and training started there and only grew, fueling his goal of being a collegiate swimmer.
Going into his college career, he had his eyes set on being a member of the varsity team, but was not given a spot by the head coach Russ Yarworth who said that Will’s times needed to improve before they could talk about his future as a Minuteman. Will went to work immediately, turning down a spot on the diving team coached by Mandy Hixon his freshman year to focus on swimming. (Will also dove in high school, and had the opportunity to be coached by Hixon who has had great success as a coach and whose son is an Olympic diver.) He lifted every day, going to the gym at 6 am, went to school, and then trained with the local USA Swimming club, the Amherst Tritons at night. His first year at UMass was spent going the extra mile to fight for a spot on the team he knew he could be on.
At the start of his sophomore year, a spot had opened on the team which Russ offered to Will. He referred to getting the news as “the best moment he’s ever had” and that the process getting there was one of the most rewarding. Despite achieving his goal, his work ethic did not change. He saw himself as the underdog and felt he needed to prove himself to his new team and coaches. With that on his mind, Will continued to train hard and worked right into his Junior season, when he became one of the fastest sprinters, swimming mostly freestyle and butterfly events. He was a member of the relay that broke the team’s 200 medley record, swimming the fly portion.
However, Will did not have the end of the season in his individual events that he wanted. He has vowed to work even harder so that he can have even more success in his senior season. His desire and hard work really showed that he could achieve is goals and that anyone can improve in the sport of swimming. He saw the daunting task as a challenge, motivating him even more to get exactly where he wanted to be. Although he worked so much harder to be offered that spot on the team, he wouldn’t change one thing about how he got there, doing it 100 times over if he had to; his passion for the sport clear to anyone who watches him swim or listens to him talk about it.
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