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Alec Lawless is a member of UNC's swimming and diving team, but he didn't always compete for the Tar Heels.
A freestyle swimmer, Alec transferred from Swarthmore College for his junior and senior years. During the 2020-2021 year at Swarthmore, he earned Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area, a Two-time CSCAA All-America (400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay), All-Centennial Conference First Team (800 freestyle relay), an All-Centennial Honorable Mention (400 freestyle relay), Academic All-Centennial Conference, and Centennial Conference Honor Roll. Here, he offers valuable tips about recruiting, transferring, and much more that can help athletes in all sports succeed in athletics and life
Why did you choose to further your athletic career at UNC?
Honestly, COVID-19 had really damaged my passion for the sport. I was already transferring from a Division 3 college, and was hesitant to commit to a college of a small population as a junior transfer. After picking UNC for a variety of reasons, I decided to give the swim team a shot when I moved in for the school year and ended up meeting some incredible people that ended up being my best friends. I knew I'd continue my athletic career quickly after my first couple practices as a walk-on.
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What is your major/field of study? Why are you passionate about this? Does this have any relation to your athletic career?
I'm a double major in Sport Administration and Psychology. I find both subjects incredibly useful in handling day-to-day life and they compliment each other nicely in my opinion. Sport Administration already has affected how I view commercials, sport events, and more, which is crazy to think that I've only taken those classes for a year. I just love sports and psychology, but I would say it relates to my athletic career as swimming can be a mentally draining sport at times and it's certainly unique.
What is your greatest athletic accomplishment while in college?
Being a part of the first mens' relay in Swarthmore's school history to qualify for NCAAs is definitely a big accomplishment of mine. It was a really special moment and definitely a tearful one for the seniors on our relay who had wanted it so bad for all four years. I wasn't supposed to be on that relay coming into Conferences, but some great swims before the relay convinced my coach to just give me a shot and I had one of the best (and most painful) swims of my life. I smile every time I watch the video of our race. All four of us just wanted to make it so badly.
What did you look for in UNC that caused you to end up picking this school?
Three things come off the top of my head. Academics, school atmosphere, and Franklin Street. It has the perfect balance of academics and fun in my book. Also, coming from the Northeast, the weather is so much nicer here.
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What is your greatest asset to your team? What is your greatest accomplishment as an athlete?
Swimming can be a really tough sport at times as I mentioned earlier, but I always try to keep it light in the water with jokes. I've been told I'm funny (or perhaps people just desperately need to laugh; either way I'll take it), and I'm never afraid to make jokes in the middle of a hard workout. My greatest accomplishment is making NCAAs back to back years in Division 3. I was significantly more valuable to my team in terms of speed at Swarthmore than UNC honestly, though. So I've focused more on my jokes than swimming recently!
Do you find it hard to balance school work, practice, games, workouts, and other extracurricular activities?
Compared to my last school – no. My last school is historically known for giving tons of work. We practiced way less but I'd much rather swim more than do more schoolwork. UNC is also very challenging in the classroom and the jump from four to five classes was a little overwhelming at first, but I find my major classes aren't terribly difficult after the first couple weeks of adjusting to them.
What made your recruiting process easy/hard?
Having coaches reach out to me made the process much easier. The head coach of Swarthmore reached out to me and after visiting I really enjoyed the team so I committed there shortly after. For UNC, I reached out to the head coach, and he told me that while he didn't have the ability to support me in the transfer process, he would happily let me on the team if I got in. Thankfully my old college (which I doubt I would have gotten in without swimming) carried some weight in terms of my admission here, I'd assume. The rest is history of course. Also, I had a great support system around me, which made the whole process easier and I think talking to teams and getting to know people well from each college made the process much smoother.
What were some of the ideals you had or things you looked for in a school or coach during the recruiting process?
I definitely wanted a school that was known for its academics. I also wanted a great team atmosphere and a school that gave off a fun vibe if that makes sense. Per the coach, I wanted someone who was balanced in terms of fun and serious when it came to working out in the pool – someone that would be willing to joke around with the team, but also keep the team in line when we were losing focus or not putting forth a good effort.
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How do you handle stress and pressure, on and off of the field?
I handle pressure in the pool phenomenally well in my opinion. I always felt like the bigger the meet, the more confident I felt and the better I performed. I have not always been the biggest fan of dual meets, but the opportunity of racing at a championship meet is so exciting and I think the adrenaline just takes over for me. I handle pressure well academically and in other parts of my life but I am also a professional procrastinator, so you can imagine how that goes when things get stressful.
Why did you choose to transfer into UNC?
I visited here in April of 2021, and the atmosphere of the school was incredible. Everyone was having fun on Franklin Street and it just felt like home. I knew the swim program was good, the academics obviously are great here, and it was really hard to turn down a school that has a passionate fanbase (especially being close to Philadelphia like myself). It just felt like the perfect fit and it was too exciting of a school to turn down.
What was the transfer process like for you?
It was stressful. While I had loved Swarthmore my first year, I really started to have problems with the school my sophomore year and COVID-19 exacerbated my desire to leave. As a result, I took a year off to figure out the best options of where to transfer to. Unfortunately, during the year off, the waves of COVID-19 made swimming consistently difficult (2 months in the pool, 2 months out, etc.), and I quickly realized that I may not have wanted to swim in college anymore.
I picked out a list of schools where swimming was more of a necessity for me to adjust (like Emory), and other schools where I'd be fine without it (like UNC). At the end of the day I came down to Emory, Franklin & Marshall, and UNC. While I absolutely adored my time at Emory and the team was absolutely awesome, I just didn't feel comfortable potentially going there just to end up not swimming. I went with UNC and it was an awesome decision. I love the team and everything about the school. Having the men's basketball team make it to the national championship game only further reaffirmed that I made the right decision! At the end of the day I don't think I could have gone wrong with any of my three options.
How did you know that UNC was the best fit when considering other universities to transfer to?
It offered the best balance of fun and academics really. It was the safest option to see if I wanted to continue swimming or not, and that made me the most comfortable picking it. Transferring as a Junior is really tough (and you only get one shot at getting your last college where you'd graduate from), and I went with the safest bet in my opinion in terms of fit and adjusting.
Image Credit: UNC Athletics
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* Originally published on August 18, 2022, by Caleb Myers
