The Bishop’s School boasts another champion athlete. Sixteen-year-old swimmer Roy Perkins Jr. received an athlete of the year award at The San Diego Hall of Champions annual Salute to Champions dinner, held Feb. 13 at the Town & Country Resort Hotel in Mission Valley. Perkins, who has won several local, national and world events, has done so without the benefit of hands ” or feet ” and the award was 2006 Challenged Athlete Star of the Year.
Accepting and overcoming challenges is second nature to Perkins.
“I don’t really see myself as having an extra challenge because I have never known any other way,” he said. “My parents didn’t raise me as a disabled child. I usually did everything every other child did, and only occasionally needed help. This gave me the confidence to try things that would challenge anyone. I guess a challenge is just what you make it.”
What he made of his challenges brought him more success than most people achieve in a lifetime. Perkins, who originally began to swim as a safety measure, participated in the San Diego Triathlon Challenge and later joined the swim club at Peninsula Aquatics San Diego (PASD) working with swim coach Don Watkinds.
“My first coach, Alan Voisard, taught me to swim and prepared me for swimming on a team. After I joined PASD, I went to the 2004 Paralympic trials in my first Paralympic meet with Don Watkinds,” Perkins said. “I set some records there and decided that my goal would be to make the Paralympic national team. In 2005 I made the national team, and the elite team in early 2006.”
He qualified for the 2004 U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials in Minneapolis, and although it was his first major meet, he set American records and two Pan-American records. He then topped his own records with a pair of world records.
Perkins recently returned from Durban, South Africa, where he was competing for the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Elite Team at the International Paralympic World Swimming Championships. He set a world record, winning a gold medal in the 50-meter butterfly in 36.67 seconds. He also set an American record when he won a bronze medal in the 200 IM (Individual Medley).
Succeeding in his goal to win the 50-meter butterfly, Perkins also came in fourth “” missing third by less than a second “” in the 200-meter freestyle.
Undaunted, Perkins said with a smile, “I still took nearly 13 seconds off my best time. I found that I was very prepared for the meet, so I was able to enjoy the competition without being distracted by being too nervous.”
In all, Perkins has managed to set 20-plus American records, five Pan-American records and two world records. How does he rack up all these records, train and manage to remain an honor student at Bishop’s?
“Both school and swimming are important to me, so I make sure that I put effort into both,” Perkins said easily. “I am naturally a driven and disciplined person, I think.”
He swims at the Kearny Mesa pool with PASD and Watkinds five to six days a week. “Approximately 14 hours total,” he said, adding, “I also weight-train at the YMCA a few times a week. When I am training for major events, I pick up my training.”
Watkinds, who has been coaching Perkins for nearly three years, said that he uses no devices or aids to assist him with his swimming.
“He learned how to swim, and how to swim well,” Watkinds said.
Expressing his coaching style, he stated simply, “You figure out what you’ve got, and then you figure out how to use it effectively.”
Watkinds, who works with swimmers of all abilities and ages, remembers Perkins’ first practice on his swim team. The team is “able-bodied,” and after swimming half a pool length without breathing, Watkinds directed the team to walk back to the wall on their hands.
“Yeah, you too,” he directed the stunned Perkins. “That’s what got him excited. He was treated like anyone else.”
“Roy works hard, and he’s willing to try anything,” Watkinds added.
In addition to his personal achievements, Perkins and his parents, Jana and Roy Sr., have helped raise nearly $75,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) in San Diego by participating in the triathlon challenges, sending out inspirational e-mails of support to friends and family and hosting school fund-raisers and garage sales.
The CAF is a unique organization that, according to its Web site (challengedathletes.org), “recognizes the athletic greatness inherent in all people with physical challenges and supports their athletic endeavors by providing grants for training, competition and equipment needs.”
“It is important to me that other disabled athletes can participate in sports despite financial setbacks,” Perkins stated. “Everyone should be able to participate in sport not only for fitness, but for overall health and self-esteem.”
Perkins’ next goal is “to go to the 2008 Paralympic Games and win medals for my country. After Beijing, I will decide what my future is in paralympic swimming.”
His amazing determination was never hindered by the staring or rude remarks he has endured, thanks to a wry sense of humor.
“When I was younger, I sometimes told other kids at the beach that my arms were bitten off by a shark,” he said with a laugh. “They typically didn’t go back in the water.”
Despite physical challenge, phenomenal accomplishment and strong will, Perkins said he doesn’t see himself much differently from anyone else.
“We all have goals and challenges ” some more conspicuous than others,” he said. “It’s all about how you choose to handle it and how you see yourself.”