Key Points
Union County High School swimming is still in its infancy.
The Tigers didn’t start their program until four years ago.
Eva Whitehead was just a freshman and her dad, Brad, was the head coach.
“It’s been a four-year progression, and she’s just gotten better each year,” said Brad Whitehead.
Following individual state titles in her junior and senior seasons, Eva became the school’s first-ever female All-American.
On Tuesday, she signed a college scholarship with the University of Alabama.
“It’s just Alabama, the culture, the school life, everything about it, I just loved it,” Eva Whitehead said. “I knew from when I was on my visit that that would be the one.”
She chose the Crimson Tide over LSU, North Carolina State, and Kentucky, among others.
“I’m just proud to put Union County on the map and get out of the small town of Lake Butler,” she said. “Towards the end of your senior year, you go through a lot of different recruiting with different schools and coaches and balancing that and your school life too. I’m happy to be at the end of it and be locked in with one school.”
Eva started swimming competitively at the age of five.
“That’s all she’s ever done,” Brad Whitehead said. “My mother has taught swim lessons to small kids for 35 years, and now my wife and my other two kids teach swimming lessons to about 100 kids every summer.”
Father and daughter share a common bond.
“Her and I are a lot alike, unlike her mother and our son, so her and I have a lot of the same characteristics and operate the same way, and so it makes it easy for us,” Brad Whitehead said. “The dynamics are really good, but I’m more of a standing coach, so I coach the other girls more than I do her.”
She’s been getting her other coaching in Gainesville.
“She’s not afraid of doing hard work,” said John Hulvey, head coach of the Gator Swim Club, a USA swim program with 250 members. “She puts in the time, the effort, and she’s got the nutrition side down.”
Eva advanced to state in her sophomore year and actually finished 23rd in the event that she recently won a state title in.
“It was kind of like a humbling experience, and I just don’t like losing, and I was kind of mad from getting 23rd at states out of 24,” she said. “I worked the whole year and I was able to win next year.”
Following a state title as a junior, Eva repeated as the girls 200 Individual Medley (IM) state champ at the FHSAA Swimming and Diving state championships in Ocala earlier this month, finishing in 2 minutes, 00.11 seconds, more than a second-and-a-half faster than runner-up Ella Gotham of Bolles (Jacksonville).
“When she won the state championship (as a junior), it kind of came out of nowhere, and then the following year, in this year, I believe there was a lot of pressure on her, just defending her state title,” Brad Whitehead said. “But you know, you could almost see the confidence, like she knew she had it.”
Ava also finished second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.09, just behind winner Naiyla DiSarno of Fort Lauderdale NSU School (1:02.68), to lead UCHS (37 points) to a 16th-place team finish
“Well, I went into the state championship knowing I won last year, and just like being scared I wouldn’t be able to defend my title,” she said. “Luckily, I was able to do that, and there was just so many emotions going on, like I also got runner up in my other event, so I was happy for that too, and then also being a two time state champion, and from a small town, the only public school that was in the top eight at states too.”
And now a Division-I signee.
“Once she won the first state championship, we were like, ‘Oh, wow. We have some great opportunities here,’ and then the doors just started opening,” Brad Whitehead said. “By the grace of God, we found her home, and she fell in love with Alabama. It’s just a beautiful campus, great place.”