When Walker Jenkins was a freshman at South Brunswick High School in North Carolina, he underwent a procedure to fix a hip impingement that left him unable to put any pressure on his lower body. So one of the top prep baseball players in the country took up a new sport: swimming.
“Swimming got me in the best shape of my life freshman year,” said Jenkins, a UNC commit from Oak Island, North Carolina. “Your body feels great after it. Your joints feel stronger, and you also build muscle. Swimming helps build up those little muscles you don’t use that can be helpful on the baseball field.”
Healthy again by his sophomore year, the multi-sport standout swapped swimming for basketball before focusing solely on baseball his junior year. But as a senior, Jenkins decided to return to the pool during the winter to best prepare his body for baseball season in the spring.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder competed in the 50-yard freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 200 medley relay, and 200 free relay this past season. Jenkins capped his high school swimming career by helping South Brunswick’s 200 free relay team place 8th at the NCHSAA 3A State Championships in February with a 24.90 leadoff split.
“I’ve been coaching high school swim for almost 10 years, and it’s incredibly rare to see someone whose main sport isn’t swimming excel in it like Walker did,” South Brunswick swim coach Nina McPherson told the Wilmington Star-News. “[If swimming was his main sport] he could have easily ended up as a Division I swimmer.”
This past spring, Jenkins showed off impressive power while hitting .480 with 32 runs scored along with a whopping 32 walks.
On Sunday, he was selected fifth overall in the 2023 MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins, joining former water polo star and current pitcher Joe Ryan. Jenkins is still reportedly considering honoring his college commitment to UNC.
South Brunswick outfielder Walker Jenkins hit a ball a bajillion feet. He’s going to go good this July. pic.twitter.com/oqkfRbYvMl
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) March 30, 2023
Getting a look at OF Walker Jenkins (N.C.) tonight and he’s got a couple of hard hit balls after two ABs including this no-doubt HR to right-center. pic.twitter.com/PEyikwiGT8
— Carlos Collazo (@CarlosACollazo) March 15, 2023
Great season for the SBHS Swim Team. I really appreciate the coaches hard work and enjoyed watching everyone compete! @WalkerJenkins6 pic.twitter.com/EmvcbjdAkU
— Clay Jenkins (@ClayJen98289097) February 14, 2023
I coach another HS team in the same conference- that kid is a beast. He really could be a top swimmer if he swam for more than just the high school season.
Breaststroke seems to build hundreds of tiny muscles in the feet.
Mike Schmidt baseball player also
very cool! There have been a few pro sports stars who were decent age group swimmers. Tim Duncan from the Spurs comes to mind, chime in if you can recall others.
He never became the star that he was projected to be but Kris Humphries did have a 13 or 14 year NBA career. Swim-wise, think he actually held some NAG records as a kid.
He was also married to Kim Kardashian for a couple of months, so there’s that…
wow, I had no idea…and pretty cool that he might have had some NAG records.
What other famous people were swimmers that we know of? I know Jen Psaki was a swimmer….
Ryan Lochte who is a reality star was a really solid swimmer. I heard he has a record too.
might be the funniest thing I have read all day!
Seth Beer was a NAG record holder in 11-12 boys backstroke and has been bouncing back and forth between AAA and MLB recently after going in the first round from Clemson in 2018.
A few SwimSwam articles come up if you search his name.
Eddie Hall was a Junior National level swimmer in England.
KiKi Vandeweghe held the 10 & Under 50 Back NAG for years. Switching to basketball, he became a 2 time NBA All Star for the Denver Nuggets. His sister, Tauna made the 1976 Olympic Team in the 100 Back. And oh yeah, his mom was the 1952 Miss America.
I think Tim Duncan picked up basketball because a hurricane destroyed the pools where he grew up. If that is completely true or something that was said to make the back story better/different I am not sure. I have not looked up his times but he was a really good swimmer from what I read.