Charlie Short leaves mark on Bradley-Bourbonnais swimming

Bradley-Bourbonnais senior Charlie Short ended his first and only season of high school swimming on a high note.

One week after a dominant performance at sectionals, Short competed in four events in the Athletes With Disabilities division at the IHSA State Finals on March 1 at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont. He wrapped up his brief but successful career by earning a bronze medal, two fourth-place finishes and one fifth-place finish on the biggest stage of the year.

“It was a surreal feeling to be there,” Short said. “I feel like it was a great way to start and end my swim career going to state. It was great having everybody there.”

Short was a member of the water polo team last season, where he was convinced by his teammates to give swimming a try for his senior season. When he approached head coach Megan Dote, who is in her third year leading the program, the two started discussing if swimming would be a possibility.

“When he did come to me, he was just trying to figure out if it would he a good fit, if he thought he’d be able to do it, if we had confidence he could do it,” Dote said. “He wanted to just try it and see where it went. We didn’t know all the logistics. We didn’t know if it was going to work or hurt his body. Ultimately, his health and not being in pain is most important.”

Short has left hemiplegic cerebral palsy, which affects strength and movement on the left side of his body. As a result, he had to figure out the best way to perform each stroke.

“The hardest thing was learning how to swim differently with the way my arm and my leg move, and what I had to make up on my other side to try to PR or just finish a race,” he said.

But as soon as Short hit the pool to prepare for the season, Dote said it did not take long at all for him to figure things out.

“The second Charlie got in the water, I saw him dive in and was like, ‘holy cow, you’re going to be going to state,‘” Dote said. “I didn’t know what to expect, because he had never swam before. I didn’t know if it was going to be more like ‘O.K., let’s just get this going.’ But he already had the technique down, he had the speed down.

”It was more so just what he had motivationwise in his head and what his body was going to allow him to do, and he never wavered in that. He wanted to continue to do better and get better.”

Short punched his ticket to state by winning all four of his events in the IHSA Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional. He took the 50-yard freestyle (44.17), 100-yard freestyle (1:44.78), 100-yard breaststroke (2:33.62) and the 200-yard freestyle (3:56.77).

Once at state, he managed to shave time in all four events. He placed third in the 200-yard freestyle (3:51.55), fourth in both the 50-yard freestyle (43.94) and 100-yard breaststroke (2:22.77) and fifth in the 100-yard freestyle (1:41.93).

Short said that having his team’s support as he headed down the final stretch of the season was the highlight of his swimming experience.

“The last three weeks of swim, with conference, sectionals and state, everybody was giving me tips, giving me confidence that I needed to keep going and make sure I was in the right headspace,” he said. “Coach definitely helped a lot there with my motivation to keep doing it and do better, and my confidence especially.”

Dote said that she and the team were more than happy to lend Short that support given how hard they saw him work throughout the season.

“Every single person on our team is truly so so proud of him and the work and effort that he put in,” she said. “Even if he’s hurting, he’d always tell me he was great, and I really thinks that speaks volumes. I can kind of see through him when he tries to tell me he’s great and I know he needs to take it easy, which unfortunately is something he has to deal with with his disability. The amount of effort and strength he put in mentally and physically exceeds all else.”