Georgia Southern senior Morgan Fleming hopes to bring GS success after swimming for two seasons at the University of Alabama.

Fleming has not always been an Eagle, as she swam for two seasons at UA and scored career highs in 50 freestyle (23.01) at the SEC Championships when she was only a freshman.

“My high school coach really put the pressure on me my freshman year,” Fleming said. “He said he really thought I would do great at swimming, even better than soccer, so I tried it out for the first season and found my best friends and loved it.”

Fleming performed so well in her career at Parkview High School that she received several offers to swim at the collegiate level. She ended up choosing to swim at UA on a performance scholarship and got the chance to swim on the big SEC stage.

“I just decided one day to message the coach at Alabama because why not?,” Fleming said. “I was so shocked when they responded and wanted me to come visit.”

After swimming at UA for two years, Fleming acquired an injury that caused her to cut back on swimming and take time to heal. When her injury didn’t ever fully heal, she then made the decision to move to a smaller program so that she take more time to recover.

“I transferred because I got injured the fall of 2016,” Fleming said. “In the hopes of getting faster every year [at UA], I wasn’t getting any faster.”

When Fleming transferred to GS, it was a complete change. Going from a big, highly competitive UA program and then moving to the Sun Belt where it was still competitive, but slower paced, was good for her.

“I just really had to adjust to coaching perspective and the atmosphere,” Fleming said. “I came from a girl and guy team to an all girl team, so that was harder than I expected. It was harder to go from a big SEC vibe to a smaller school… but the more relaxed atmosphere helped with that because I got to learn that [because of her injury] swimming wasn’t everything.”

Her injury was a big factor in her transfer and at GS she found a home that allowed her to still swim and not prolong her injury in the process.

“I’m going to be done swimming after college,” Fleming said. “I’m still deciding about going into Graduate school right away, but if I was going to go in the fall, I would be doing a Masters of Environmental Health.”

As a senior, Fleming will graduate with her degree in Public Health in May and is very excited to jump into her career, wherever that may take her. While she enjoys swimming, she will more so continue it as a hobby, rather than a rigorous career.

Bethany-Grace Bowers, The George-Anne Assistant Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu