Many athletes who have seen the movie Rudy wish to be the title character, but few actually live out the dream.
Count Terrapin sophomore men’s swimmer Tim Shepard as one athlete who carries a favorable comparison.
“Kids have told me that they can relate me to Rudy very easily,” Shepard said. “It’s really cool to be related to a guy like Rudy. I like to think of myself as a guy that can persevere during tough times.”
Shepard’s underdog tale was set in motion in spring 2003. Recruited out of high school by a few small swimming programs, the Catonsville native chose to attend this university largely for social and academic reasons while hoping he could walk on to the Terps.
After e-mailing Terp coach Jim Wenhold that summer, Shepard was told to come into the office once classes started.
When he arrived, Shepard only found then-assistant coach Mark Murray.
“He really didn’t seem interested at all in me being there,” Shepard said. “I asked him, ‘Could I try out?’ He said no, flat out to my face. Looking back on it, I really don’t understand what the harm would’ve been to at least let me try out.”
While Shepard’s times on paper were not too impressive, they weren’t far off the marks of other Terp swimmers.
“[Shepard] came to Maryland last year and we were in a situation where there were too many guys,” Wenhold said. “At the level he was at, he wasn’t going to make it.”
But after encountering Murray’s attitude, Shepard felt insulted and took a break from competitive swimming through the fall.
The desire to swim again struck Shepard last winter. He began training with the area’s Masters chapter, a nationwide organization that allows swimmers ages 19 and up to compete in meets. Unfortunately for Shepard, he did not turn 19 until October. As spring semester heated up, the freshman became frustrated training with older men and not swimming in meets, so he stopped.
“I felt out of place,” Shepard said. “I mean they were all very nice, but it just got to be a burden and it wasn’t fun anymore.”
Shepard again left swimming – this time for three monts. Enjoying the college life of a freshman, he hardly thought about his once-passionate aspirations.
Without the news that came in late May, Shepard most likely would have continued his laid-back college lifestyle. But when Murray was dismissed from Wenhold’s staff, Shepard’s Rudy-like story was rekindled.
“That really lit a fire under me,” Shepard said. “I was like, ‘I may as well give it another shot.'”
Shepard committed himself to an arduous daily training schedule to get back into swimming shape. He slowly began to improve.
“You always hear of people dropping swimming once they don’t make the college team as a freshman,” said John Clark, the co-head swim coach at the Catonsville YMCA where Shepard swam for 12 years. “He took his entire summer before this fall and trained. He worked every morning determined to make that team.”
Shepard contacted Wenhold for the second consecutive summer declaring his interest in trying out for the Terps. Remembering that Shepard was interested a year earlier, and with spots available on the team, Wenhold granted the sophomore a tryout.
“I was practicing hard before, but I really got in the mindset like if I’m going to swim this year, I need to start preparing to better this team,” Shepard said.
Shepard’s tryout was unlike the traditional tryout he was expecting. Instead, the informal tryouts consisted of swimming with the team for a few weeks at the beginning of the semester, which led Shepard to believe he had made the cut even before Wenhold officially announced he had earned a spot.
“His swimming ability was tough to gauge at first, but you could tell he had a great feel for the water in his breaststroke,” assistant coach Mark Sowa said.
While Shepard had accomplished one of his goals, others had yet to be realized. Being on the team was not good enough; Shepard wanted to contribute.
In just three meets this season, Shepard has progressed rapidly. In the second meet on Oct. 30, Shepard finished 10th, posting a time of 2:12.86 in his best event, the 200 breaststroke. Just three weeks later at the Terrapin Invitational, Shepard won the event with a time of 2:03.87.
“He’s made such great improvements in just two and a half months,” Wenhold said. “He’s looking at the potential to possibly be a finalist at the ACC Championships.”
Shepard favors the 200-breaststroke over his other primary events – the 100-breaststroke and the 200-IM.
After being denied a tryout to becoming a key contributor in just over one year, Shepard spun his own version of Rudy. And even with an underfunded program, Shepard has could go from walk-on status to earning a scholarship.
“I still have a little bit more to do before money is an issue,” he said. “That will be decided next year. Right now, it’s about the experience. I never thought that I’d get to this point.
