Point Pleasant H.S. Swimmer Kern Signs With Fairfield

(Photo Credit: Point Pleasant School District)

Point Pleasant Borough High School senior Carolyn Kern has signed a national letter of intent to continue her swimming career at Fairfield University, according to a news release from the school district.

Kern took advantage of the NCAA’s early signing period to sign the deal to attend the Division I school. She had been recruited since she was a sophomore.

“It was intense,” Kern said of the solicitations she received from various colleges and universities from across the country. “Since I was a sophomore I would have calls, emails, and letters of offers from different schools and it was just overwhelming.”

University of Vermont and Fordham were just a couple of the notable institutions petitioning Kern for her consideration before she finally settled on Fairfield, the final visit on her unofficial college tour, taken only a month prior in October 2014.

“Fairfield was the only college where I stayed for an overnight visit,” Kern said. “During my time there, I just loved everything about it from the campus and overall atmosphere to the coach and especially my future teammates.”

Kern has been swimming competitively since she was 10 and is a four-year varsity swimmer at Point Boro, serving as team captain for the last two. Kern also swims competitively for the Ocean County YMCA swim team. She also serves as president of the high school’s Spanish Club and is a member of the Future Business Leaders of America, and the Quiz Bowl team. Kern carries a grade point average well into the 90s with an academic schedule filled with AP and honors classes.

Swim coach Patty Ryan lauded Kern’s drive.

“It’s so funny because it sounds like a contradiction, but Carolyn is at once so focused and relaxed,” Ryan said. “Before a competition, she’s chatting with her teammates, having a good time, but then once it’s time to compete, it’s like a switch flips and she’s 100 percent focused, with unrivaled intensity. It’s an awesome transformation to witness.”

“She’s an excellent competitor and has become an integral part of our team over the last four years,” Ryan said. “We are really going to miss her.”

Coach Ryan was on hand along with Carolyn’s parents Bob and Tinker Kern, Uncle Michael Kern, family friend Benjie Fiorentino, Athletic Director Chris Ferrone, Point Pleasant Borough High School Principal Kurt Karcich and Superintendent of Schools Vincent S. Smith, as Carolyn signed the documents that would officially make her a Fairfield Stag.

“Carolyn exemplifies all the best qualities of our student-athletes,” Ferrone said. “She is dedicated, determined and hard-working and she deserves the many successes that will surely come her way.”

“The district’s philosophy that co-curricular activities are an extension of the classroom, vital to student development is reflected in Carolyn’s National Letter of Intent signing,” Smith said. ”She personifies the correlation that exists between athletic performance and academic achievement.”