Brandon Samaniego, Men's Swimming
Tell us about how you first got involved with your sport. When did you first get interested and began participating? What is it about the sport that you enjoy so much?
I originally got into my swimming as a young boy, just having a lot of energy and my parents wanting me to do a sport like my brother. Although everyone in my family being confident in land sports like baseball, basketball, football, and soccer, I had no interest/ability to do well in those sports growing up. The thing I enjoy the best about the sport is while being in the pool, you get to focus on yourself and the water around you, you go into this zen state, almost.
What got you here to Orange Coast College? Tell us about your journey to OCC.
Having just graduated high school in 2020 with COVID having quarantined everyone, I had a scholarship to go to Wyoming and get an education and swim there. The hopes and dreams of going to class were crushed by being stuck in a dorm room all day with nothing but a computer screen to sit at all day, weeks on end without swimming. I decided to drop out and come back to California. While being back home, my swim coach at my club team had told me about the head coach (Anthony Iacopetti) at Orange Coast College. Anthony had told me about past students and experiences he had helped with and I decided to give it another chance. I now see the school as a second chance of greatness majoring in film and television.
If I asked your coach or teammates about what type of person you are on your team, what do you think they would say?
Hardworking, tough, determined, resistant
For those not familiar with competitive swimming, most races come down to less than the length of a body, if not closer! Without sharing ALL of the secrets, what are some of the ways swimmers can get that extra edge in the water to pull out a close win like that?
As a distance swimmer there are times when you can either be in a pack of two or three in your race, but as a sprinter the entire pool is either at your hips shoulders or right with you. A simple secret to keep in mind while swimming is to not let your technique break any time of the race, or just keep your head down and swim the last few meters like your life depends on it!
When you're not involved with your sport, what do you enjoy doing for fun? Any hobbies or interests and that keep you busy in your spare time?
Out of the pool for hobbies I enjoy script writing and video games. I simply escape reality by writing a story or playing a game for a few hours a day really makes me think of the endless possibilities of stories there are.
Take us through the amount of training and time in the water that you have to spend in order to compete at this level. Whether its weights, or cardio, or in the water, take me through a week in the life of a swimmer.
The training is brutal and it never gets easy, which is something I wish I didn’t say. With that, most training schedules as a distance swimmer usually go through about 7-8 practices with 5 afternoon sessions and 2-3 morning sessions. As Americans we usually count the distance as yards as the rest of the world does meters, but about the week, a distance swimmer does about 10,000 to 30,000 yards a week of training in the pool.
Favorite sports team? Any sport you want ... who's your favorite team and why?
Sports team as of right now, L.A. Rams ... easy and simple answer.
Once your sports career is over, what do you want to do with your life, career-wise?
After a career of swimming, I would hope a career in writing and directing would work me into Hollywood or something like that. Just making short films and writing pages on end of different stories has always been a dream come true of mine to bring them to the cinema screen!
What's on your "Bucket List"??? Somewhere amazing to visit?? A Sports event to experience?? Whatcha got??
For the bucket list, I would have always want to go to Japan. Seems like that is coolest place ever, all the lights the views and the FOOD!
