When Chloe Mullens was seven, she started swimming at her local club in Morgantown, West Virginia. Chloe had a lot of energy and her parents were, quite simply, looking for something that would wear her out. What they found was something more, something that surprised them. “My parents contacted the coach of Club Mountaineer Aquatics,” says Chloe. “An assessment was arranged, to determine my skill level and the group that would be the best fit. My parents knew I could swim, but I surprised them when I started picking up on the nuances of different strokes.”

Chloe is now 17 and has committed to swim and dive at Indiana University, Indianapolis. She’s in her fourth and final year at SPIRE Academy. SPIRE has been formative for her as a swimmer, of course, but it’s also been formative in other ways, ways she didn’t expect. Chloe: “I moved away from home to a college lifestyle at a very young age; it was shocking at first to have to do my own laundry, to have more discipline, to have to try and become the best version of myself on my own. I’ve experienced a lot at SPIRE. I had to mature very quickly to endure the things I was going through, but it has made me so mentally tough. My mindset has changed over the past four years from ‘I don’t know if I can do this anymore’ to ‘keep on pushing.’” 

But Chloe’s first introduction to her coach—SPIRE’s Director of Aquatics, Thad Schultz—came before she packed her bags and moved onto campus. “For my 14th birthday, my parents gave me a week-long swim camp here,” says Chloe. “Olympic Swimmer Elizabeth Biesel was leading it. I was super excited to have the opportunity to train with her, but also super nervous. Also, this was my first time being away from my parents for an extended time. Finally, I was slightly intimidated by Coach Thad. But once he started helping me with my stroke and telling me what I needed to fix and improve, I knew I was never going to be the same. He saw potential in me.” 

But even at that point, Chloe didn’t think attending SPIRE as a boarding student was an option. “I hadn’t thought about going to school there,” she says. “I didn’t know much about the program. No one in my family had ever attended boarding school. The admissions department called my parents and asked if they would be available to meet with Coach Thad when they came to get me from camp. I remember sitting there with my parents when he asked me, ‘Would you like to swim here?’ My heart was thumping. I had fallen in love with SPIRE in my week on-campus.” 

Student athletes come to SPIRE to help them achieve their dreams. Emphasis on the word “help” here. The desire and the passion have to be there already. With Chloe, that was exactly the case. “Competing at a DI school has always been my goal,” she says. “No matter my age, I knew I wanted to compete at a high level. But it was SPIRE that took that raw desire and raw talent and shaped me into the kind of athlete who can do that. To be successful here, you have to be dedicated and disciplined. SPIRE helped me learn how to perform under pressure, have a growth mindset in the most challenging of situations and also have good time management.” 

It’s worth noting, though, that as heads-down and driven SPIRE student athletes need to be, there’s more than a little fun to be had along the way; it is high school, after all. Chloe: “After four years here, I have quite a few entertaining memories, like playing sharks and minnows in the deep end of the pool. It’s fun to watch everyone get super competitive. Bus rides are always trips, in more ways than one. Sitting in the hotel hallway at night, talking, is always a blast. I felt so at home with my team. I do have one favorite memory, which was outside of the pool. It was my first year, and we were allowed to enter each other’s dorms, so I would go over and make pancakes with the basketball team. Most didn’t know how to cook, so teaching them how to make pancakes was a lot of fun. My first year is a year I’ll never forget.”

Chloe’s next stop is swimming and diving at Indiana University, Indianapolis (a DI school, it must be noted). It’s fair to say, then, that SPIRE has done its job—taking the raw material of Chloe’s talent and passion for competing and forging it into the stuff DI athletes are made of. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to swim for IU Indy,” says Chloe. “I honestly didn’t think I’d make it this far. When I was younger, swimming for IU was my dream, and soon I’ll be living it. Coach Thad has played an enormous part in shaping me into who I am today. He feels like family. But really, all the coaches do. My advice to kids coming up is to never give up. Life throws curve balls. Don’t let them impact your sport. Use them as fuel, to inspire you to be the best version of yourself. And finally, stop doubting yourself. It took me a long time to do that. SPIRE helped me get past my doubt, my coaches in particular. Four years here have made all the difference.”