Kyle Millis is a former Division I swimmer at the University of California Berkeley. In his four seasons, Kyle was a part of the four Pac-12 team conference titles and the two NCAA team titles. Kyle now works in the tech world but still spends his free time educating athletes through social media. Today, Kyle talked with us about all the information you need to know if you want to swim in college.
What did your recruiting process look like?
I really only had three years of club swimming under my belt before I went into college. My recruiting timeline was very short. I pretty much had to get as fast as I possibly could in my sophomore and the first half of my junior year and then get those times out to coaches and see what happens.
Why UC Berkeley?
I always had academics top of mind. UC Berkeley is the number one public school in America, so it definitely takes the cake there. I also wanted to go to a business school. Not a ton of colleges offer an undergrad business major. UC Berkeley did…and the business school was pretty much the big reason why I ended up there. I always say that there are four factors in the recruiting process: athletics, academics, location, and the overall vibe. Obviously, the athletics and academics box was checked, and my recruiting trip validated the rest for me.
What is the swimming recruiting process like?
Swimming is a very interesting sport because it is 100% metrics-based. There are no highlight reels…It's very quantitative. It's pretty easy to determine who is good enough. With swimming, you aren't going to get wined and dined the same way you might on basketball or football teams. My trip was mostly put on by the swimmers on the team. I took a couple of other trips and the difference was the team love. I didn't really see that at the other places I visited. If you see that at a school at a school you're looking to go to, I would definitely lean into that.
What was it like swimming for such a competitive program?
The goal for most of the swimmers on the team was to make the NCAA championship. For a select few on the team, their goal was to win an Olympic gold medal. That really took me up to the next level. The swim team definitely started to get a reputation on campus after my freshman year when we won the national championship. Despite not being the top sport on campus, we definitely had a lot of respect from people.
How hard was it to balance sports and academics?
I remember the first day I walked on the pool deck and there were two Olympians that were walking behind me. So, the bar was already super high for swimming. I walked into my first lecture the week after that and the professor asked, “How many people here were Valedictorians of their class?” Almost everyone's hand shot up. I realized that the bar in my life had been raised. I couldn't coast through college like I did in high school. The academic advisors, tutors, and other free resources got me right back on track.
What is your advice to high school swimmers who are trying to find the right fit?
My number one piece of advice is to sit down with your parents and craft a really good email. Then, throw it away. Make it three times shorter. You should email the assistant coach and CC the head coach because the assistant coach is most likely the recruiting coordinator. They don't need to read a super long email, they just want to see the bullet points, especially in a quantitative sport like swimming. They want to see how fast you are, your transcript from high school, and someone who is able to write an email and get their point across. That shows a sign of maturity.
What was the inspiration behind your YouTube channel?
During my senior year of college, I wanted to document my last year as a student-athlete. I had always been interested in content creation and decided I would take a leap of faith. Over time, a couple of my videos went semi-viral and I started getting monetized which incentives you to continue creating. At the end of the year, I looked back and realized I had so many memories I could look back on. Now, I'm two years out of college and I still make some time to do content creation.
My motivation is to inspire and enlighten the next generation of college athletes. I cover recruiting, NIL, and swimming tips to help the next generation.
Image Credit: California Golden Bears Athletics
