Darden carrying on family tradition

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on January 1, 2014 1:48 PM

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Water rippled around Zach Darden as he glanced toward the scoreboard, checked his time and waited for his competitors to complete their final lap.

A shrill whistle pierced the chlorine-filled air and the swimmers cleared the pool.

Darden removed his goggles, shook the last remnants of water from his ears and searched for his towel. He wiped himself down and wrapped it around his shoulders as walked toward his Goldsboro teammates.

The towel's blue stitching, faded from a few cycles in the washer, said it all -- "Darden: A Winning Tradition."

It's undoubtedly a shroud of inspiration since Darden hails from an athletic family.

His dad, Chuck, starred at Goldsboro High and won a state 4-A championship in the 200 individual medley. To this day, the elder Darden holds numerous school records that Zach tries to break each time he enters a swim meet.

Older brother Chase earned all-state honors in two sports at Wayne Christian, and earned a scholarship to play soccer at Catawba.

"(Dad) gives me a lot of advice and I enjoy having him there to critique my swim," Zach said. "It's nice to have somebody who is educated in swimming there with me and he's been there every step of the way. That really helps a lot.

"Chase talks me through things and keeps me really focused. I see what he does in college and it seems like it's a lot of fun. A big goal for me is to swim in college."

Darden made two pivotal changes during the offseason to achieve that goal. He incorporated weights into his workout regimen and he left the Goldsboro Sharks swim team to join East Carolina Aquatics.

Swimming against better competition has boosted Darden's confidence and dramatically improved his times in the water. ECA has three swimmers who have signed Division I scholarships -- Dalton Shaw and Phillip Perdue with North Carolina, and Ian Eagle with East Carolina.

The trio of sprinters constantly push Darden.

"I have people pushing me, guys I look up to and try to catch up with and there are about four or five guys behind me who push me, too," Darden said. "There is a lot of talent there and I feel really comfortable there. They do a lot of sprint work, which is really my strength.

"I can swim the distant events and be competitive in them. Anything over 200 (yards), I like to avoid."

Darden has undoubtedly had a dominant high school season.

He's posted personal-best and regional-qualifying times in nine individual events. The intense weight work has strengthened Darden's power in the pool along with endurance produced through swimming six- and seven-thousand yard stretches in practice.

Darden remembers standing on the podium and receiving his second-place medal from the 200 IM during last year's N.C. High School Athletic Association Classes 1-A/2-A state meet. The silver came one week after he captured gold in the east regional.

"I was afraid going into this season I wouldn't be able to quite reach them (normal times) with the switch in teams and switch in training, but I've stepped up my game outside of the pool, too," Darden said. "I want to keep pushing. I don't want to regret anything this season. I want to work as hard as I can. Even if I go to the state championships and come out with another second place, I want to know that I gave it 100 percent.

"This year, the plan is to go and take care of business."

And add his own chapter to a family tradition.