Earlier this year, class of 2018’s Harry Homans announced he would be taking a gap year to “train and compete with Bluefish and take some local community college courses” then head to North Carolina in the fall of 2019. As the son of Fritz Homans, an All-American swimmer for the Tar Heels from 1976 to 1980, it was a logical choice. Then, without a lot of fanfare, on November 10 he posted this photo on Instagram and changed his profile to read “UGA Swim ‘23,” while posting a photo to his story from Georgia’s Sanford football stadium saying “Cant [sic] wait to be be here for the next 4 years #godawgs”
Homans graduated from Rhode Island’s Barrington High School in June. He swims for Bluefish Swim Club under head coach Chuck Batchelor. This summer he won the 200 fly at Speedo Junior Nationals, dropping 3.3 seconds to notch a PB of 2:00.29. He also placed 7th in the 200 back and 16th in the 200 free. The previous week he had made the 18U final of the 400 IM at Phillips 66 Nationals with a best time of 4:28.87, and he took 1.2 seconds off his 200 IM in prelims going 2:04.99. Earlier in the summer he’d taken 4.5 seconds of his PB in the 200 free (1:52.02).
At his last Rhode Island High School State Championships, he broke the 200 free record in 1:38.39 and the 100 fly record in 49.15. Furthermore, he was part of two record-setting relays, leading off the 200 medley relay in 23.23 and anchoring the 400 free relay with 45.60. At the TYR Pro Swim Series – Atlanta in early March, he took 1 second off his previous PB in the 100m fly, finishing 23rd overall. He also took a half-second off his 100 free time in prelims (53.27).
SCY times:
- 100 Backstroke: 49.24
- 200 Backstroke: 1:45.98
- 200 IM: 1:50.34
- 400 IM: 3:53.48
- 100 Butterfly: 48.84
- 200 Butterfly: 1:47.13
- 200 Freestyle: 1:38.39
- 400/500 Freestyle: 4:33.49
- 1000 Freestyle: 9:14.93
Homans will suit up for the Bulldogs with fellow class of 2023 verbal commits Charlie Logan, Dillon Downing, Ian Grum, and Zach Hils.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
ACC versus SEC swimming…..let the big Dawg eat!
Yo, swimswam – this might sound crazy, but y’all seem pretty good with algorithms in such…
Is there any way to get rate of improvement from the countries juniors to senior year for the former NCAA recruits under the old rules in order to compare them to future rates of improvement to see if there is a correlation between recruiting rules and performance/improvement?
It’s a little out there, but thought I’d ask.
And good for Harry. Kids should go where they want to go, hope it works out for him.
There might be! I’m not following you though…
This is going to happen more and more with early commitments….by both parties, swimmer and coach.
Why did he want unc in the first place lol
His Dad. Second Sentence of the article.
Do some research on the academic status and rankings of UNC and that might tell you all you need to know.
he cant cut in in UNC? its consider a “public ivy”, while UGA is third best in Georgia below Emory and Ga Tech
I think you went the wrong way with that. Maybe the comment was about how UNC academics are largely considered a joke now, especially in the athletic realm, and where their swim team is ranked (or not ranked) would make UGA a better choice in both regards.
Google ‘UNC academic fraud’ and get back to us…
Bauerle’s contract goes through 2020 and then he leaves UGA and focuses on his pros. Calling it now.
What’s with the gap year?
Gotta love a verbal. If a coach/program does this (takes the spot away) they are painted negatively. Recruits do this and no big deal even though the coach/program holds the $ and the roster spot and possibly loses other recruits. Ridiculous…
Well maybe because where he goes to college is his choice and will impact the rest of his life extremely heavily and could dictate the type of person he becomes, the level of athlete he will become, and even what kind of job he will get after school. Let him make the right choice for him.
The coach in this situation is someone over the age of 30 who:
1) is financially backed by a large organization, like UNC, and who is (hopefully) chosen for his experience/expertise
2) intentionally tries to sell his school to recruits by taking them onto the field at football games, having the team involve them in some activities, and just generally trying to give this kid the rosiest possible picture of the university in the hopes that he or she will go there.
So yes, if someone with the backing and experience of a D1 college coach reneges on his decision, I’m going to look at him or her pretty critically.
Compare that to the situation where a… Read more »
Maybe don’t give a 16 year old a three day recruiting trip to decide their entire college future or risk having their spot pulled. This is the system the NCAA put in place.
Great kid. Go dawgs!