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A year after announcing his intention to swim at the University of Texas, John Simmons has committed to Texas A&M University for the 2025-26 school year. The Humble, Texas, native is a senior at Atascocita High School. He swims year-round with Blue Tide Aquatics.
As a junior, he placed 6th in the 200 free (1:37.26) and 5th in the 100 fly (48.59) at the Texas UIL 6A State Swimming and Diving Championships, improving his positions from 9th in the 200 free and 13th in the 100 back a year earlier.
Simmons is coming off a big meet at Winter Juniors West, where he clocked lifetime bests in the 50 free (20.21), 200 free (1:36.14), 500 free (4:24.19), and 200 back (1:45.21) and finaled in the 50 free (19th), 200 free (4th), 500 free (19th), and 200 back (6th). Over the last year, he has dropped 1.5 seconds in the 100 back, 4 in the 200 back, 4.5 in the 200 IM, 2.1 in the 100 fly, 4.2 in the 500 free, .8 in the 200 free, 1 in the 100 free, and .8 in the 50 free.
Best SCY times:
- 100 back – 47.94
- 200 back – 1:45.21
- 200 IM – 1:47.95
- 100 fly – 47.74
- 500 free – 4:24.19
- 200 free – 1:36.14
- 100 free – 44.39
- 50 free – 20.21
Simmons will join Alejandro Michelena, Bucky Gettys, AJ Robinson, Daniel King, Emilio Trevino, and Wesley Foster on the Aggies’ roster in the fall of 2025.
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Congrats to John. I’m going to enjoy watching that freshman class compete next year.
In regards to the effects of roster limits, is there a way where we see a hybrid of college club swimming where swimmers can go and train with a college team and end up competing as a college club swimmer? Is that a path to developing swimmers and helping the sport, effectively having a walk on program where athletes have a chance to earn a varsity spot a couple of years in? Part of me thinks it’s a ridiculous question, and another part of me wonders if there are any alternatives.
This situation is untenable.
First, I’ve got to think some of the guys currently on the UT roster won’t have spots next year.
Second, does TAMU now have the same problem? 7 freshmen coming in seems like too many.
I am for foreign athletes competing in the NCAA (exhibit 1: Leon). But for the first time i’m thinking that needs to be looked at. The effect of high schoolers not thinking they have a realistic chance to swim for their state university (wether that be Texas or Michigan, or Indiana etc) is detrimental to the health of this sport.
Right now the SEC is going to 22 for men’s swimming and diving, while the rest of the P5 adhere to the settlement proposal of 30. Texas, TAMU, Florida, Georgia, et al, will have to gut current rosters and rethink how to build competitive teams. Basically, your recruits must come in with NCAA cuts. Absolutely no time for development. That will force teams to look overseas – to your point. A 30 man team with similarly talented athletes will beat a 22 man team 65 percent of the time. The 22 man team will need skill and luck to compete at NCAA champs. The whole squad needs to perform at a high level at the right time. No illness. No… Read more »
Treason
lmaooo Texas downfall
Offer taken away from Texas. Standard has changed and currently not good enough for the Texas team. Best of luck
Could this be a roster limit casualty?
100% Bowman fired him
Many years ago, I remember athletic scholarship agreements often included terms prohibiting the school from rescinding a scholarship due to an athlete’s injury or illness. (There was an older swimmer on my club who had a career-ending knee injury, but she was able to complete her 4-year degree with a scholarship.)
Honestly, top high school students these days should not commit to swim for an NCAA program unless they receive a guarantee in writing that their scholarship will be honored even if they don’t make the roster cap in future years. Situations like this, where an athlete commits to swim for a college program (for a scholarship?) but then gets cut by a new coach are fundamentally problematic.
He wasn’t good enough for Eddie to offer him scholarship money. Just because you commit somewhere it doesn’t mean you’re getting money.
What do you know about it? All of Eddie’s guys were offered some sort of $$ and all of Eddie’s guys had it taken away. Bob isn’t interested in developing swimmers like Eddie was. Bob wants them already primed for NCAA.
Watch the interview with his boss, and I think that will shed a lot of light on the goals:
https://swimswam.com/texas-ad-chris-del-conte-points-to-bob-bowman-as-evidence-of-longhorn-brands-strength/
Bob is coaching in a different world than Eddie coached in. He’s also not Eddie, and that isn’t a good or a bad thing. But I think it’s unfair to criticize Bob for having to deal with issues like roster limits when Ed’s biggest problem with team size was having to tell a couple of post grads they had to use the regular locker room because all the lockers in the varsity locker room were taken. Didn’t Ed have 22 qualify for NCAA at least once? Ed wouldn’t be able to be Ed with roster limits.
This was true in the 90s. I saw at least 3, 5-star recruits show up freshman year on guaranteed full ride contracts who either never swam or barely swam the first semester but then locked up 3 in-state scholarships. I don’t know how a school could guarantee a multi-year scholarship these days when the transfer rule was gutted and we now have roster caps. Likewise, schools like SMU, Iowa, Nebraska, Miami, etc had 5-star foreign swimmers locked up for 4 years because of these guaranteed scholarships so it was a game changer for those schools back then.
Gig’Em Aggies!!!
A&M knows a great swimmer when they see one!