Despite not taking up swimming until a couple of years ago, New Iberia Senior High’s Tripp Montgomery proved to be a quick learner and was rewarded for his efforts Wednesday when he signed a swimming scholarship with Centenary College in Shreveport.

“I’m new to the sport and started when I was 16,” he said. “I found that it was a passion when I jumped in the pool and did my first race, which was the 500 free (freestyle).

“Looking at it I said that I had a lot of talent that I didn’t even touch yet and I know that I can do a lot better.”

Montgomery joined the City of Lafayette Aquatics team, which became his second family, and started learning more about swimming.

“In one year, I went from being a rookie to being one of the top swimmers at COLA and onto the senior team,” he said.

Montgomery entered swimming not knowing was his favorite stroke was but soon found one that he liked.

“I started with the freestyle but then I went into the breast stroke and became one of the top in the state at 1:02 (one minute, two seconds on an 100 meter distance) and got that down to the 59 second mark,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery said that he learned how to swim at just over a year old and his mom (Misty) said it was one of the freakiest things that she had seen. He always wanted to get into swimming and when he found out there was a team at NISH he went to try for it, and the rest is history, he said.

“I tried out for the team and now I get a scholarship out of it,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery plans to study biology at Centenary and hopes one day to compete for the U.S. National Team and maybe one day compete in the Olympics.

“I’ve always dreamed of it,” he said. “If I’ve trained as hard as I can and have gotten this year, I know that if I put my mind to it I can do it.”