Her dad is a basketball coach and her sister is a basketball player at EC. Erica Shaw, however, has dribbled off that court and jumped head first into the swimming pool.
She is a swimmer.
“I’ve always swam,” Shaw said.
Shaw has been swimming ever since she was six months old when her parents would let her swim on her own in the pool at their house.
“Swimming is just something that is natural to me,” Shaw said.
She began swimming competitively in fifth grade with the Surfsides Swims organization. She continued up until her freshman year at Redondo Union High School, where she had a shoulder injury that required surgery.
However, the surgery did not stop Shaw from discovering another way to get back into the water.
“After my freshman year of swimming, my coach and friends encouraged me to play water polo,” Shaw said.
Shaw arranged her surgery so it would not interfere with the water polo season.
“She’s really committed,” Shaw’s best friend, Katelynn Sloss, said.
Shaw returned to swimming her senior year of high school and continued it at EC where she would break two EC records and become the only swimmer this season to qualify for the state championships.
Shaw began her quest to the state championships early on. She worked closely with swim coach Corey Stanbury.
After playing for the water polo team, Shaw continued swimming four hours a day, everyday.
“That kind of dedication is what paid off,” Stanbury said.
Shaw had to balance time between school and swimming with none left for spring break or fun.
“I didn’t do anything but school, sleep, eat and swim,” Shaw said.
Although this season meant the end of her two-year limit for the sport, swimming will still continue to be a part of Shaw’s life.
“I want to always swim for the rest of my life,” Shaw said.
However, Shaw is pursuing a major that does not include swimming, fashion merchandising.
“I’ve always liked clothes and dressing up,” Shaw said. “It was just natural for me to choose fashion.”
Shaw hopes to become a personal shopper or stylist.
California State University Long Beach seems to be the perfect fit for Shaw, which offers her major and has a water polo team.
Before Shaw transfers to CSULB, she plans to travel once more with her family.
“We are going to the Mediterranean and I am really excited about that. I’ve always wanted to go there,” Shaw said.
Her family, which consists of her mom, dad and sister, are very close with Shaw. Her mom is known to leave cards with notes saying “keep working hard.”
“Her family is really supportive of her,” Stanbury said.
Her family regularly comes to see Shaw swim at meets. They were in attendance when she broke both the 50-meter and 200-meter backstroke records.
Her dad, who is a coach for the women’s basketball team, has supported Shaw even though she didn’t follow in his basketball footsteps.
“He keeps in his ‘dad category,'” Shaw said.”He’s not a swimmer, but he’s always been a big source of encouragement to me.”
Shaw’s dedication and commitment have made her into a successful swimmer and person.
“She knows what she has to do,” Sloss said. “She goes out and does it.”
“I feel very lucky that I got to work with her,” Stanbury said. “She is really dedicated, nice, works hard and has a great personality.”