On a typical day, Patrick MacAulay gets up at about 4:30 and heads to Hackley School pool for swim practice.
By Mitch Silver
On a typical day, Patrick MacAulay gets up at about 4:30 and heads to Hackley School pool for swim practice. He then drives back to Rye for his high school classes. When school lets out, he has an hour for himself before another three-hour practice with his Empire Swimming Club team, this time in Ardsley. Home just before 8, he eats a big dinner and then tackles his homework. If there’s a test the next day, he stays up a little later to study for it. Then he hits the hay for five hours before starting all over again.
So, what does the still-growing 6’2” Rye senior have to show for those 19 waking hours? Let’s see. He’s the captain of the Garnets’ Boys’ swim team, and a double qualifier for States in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle. He’s an Honor Roll/High Honor Roll student, with an 89 GPA in his four-year academic career. He’s a member of the National Music Honor Society. And today, Patrick is one of the select student-athletes who’ve earned the honor of being named a Lions Club Athlete of the Month.
Patrick, who’ll be swimming for Providence College in the fall, also volunteers his time with Meals on Wheels, at Resurrection Church, and as a stroke coach for younger kids on his club swim team. In the summer, he’s a supervising lifeguard at Westchester Country Club.
Patrick was given the following hypothetical: “Suppose you had two hours of free time to use however you wanted. What would you do?” With such a jam-packed schedule, is it any wonder he answered, “I guess I’d sleep a bit.”
If he did, he’d be fresh as a daisy when he went back to his English literature course, the one with books on poverty and racism like Toni Morrison’s first novel, “The Bluest Eye”. Also on Patrick’s schedule are AP classes in History and Economics, and one in Advanced Forensic Science.
Forensic science? “I just like to try things I haven’t done before. Did you know you can date how long a body’s been in the ground by the insects that infest it?”
Should make for some interesting small talk during the end-of-year awards dinner at The Osborn.
