FAIRHOPE, Alabama — The Fairhope High swim team had three seniors sign collegiate scholarships April 18 as Hannah Legg, Ross Hudson and Thomas Shane each committed to higher education and deeper competition next year.

The Pirates swim coach Cathy Hudson said the three are the first swimmers from Fairhope to accept scholarships in the sport.

"These are the first swimmers at Fairhope High School that have signed swimming scholarships," she said. "There are some who probably could have in the past, but these are the first who have decided they want to do this and go to the next level. We are very proud and I cannot wait to see what they will do at the next level."

Shane, a breaststroke sprint specialist, signed to swim for Birmingham-Southern College.

"I primarily swim breaststroke and then some IM (Individual Medley), but I am primarily a 200 and 100-yard breaststroker," he said. "I am really excited because I was accepted into the Honors Program, which is a part of my scholarship. Only 25 students are accepted into that. So, I am honored to be doing that, as well as swimming and starting a new swimming program.”

The Panthers added men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs to their athletic department and Shane will be on the inauguaral men's team this fall for coach Toby Wilcox. He added that the team would use the Olympic-size pool at the new Birmingham Metro Crossplex for practice and home meets.

Shane was also drawn to the academic opportunities at BSC. "I was doing some research and I think I am going to do an inter-disciplinary major of philosophy, political science and economics with a possible minor in Asian studies, but as of right now that is not quite concrete," he said.

This summer, Birmingham-Southern will become a member of a new athletics conference that includes Berry College, Centre College, Hendrix College, Millsaps College, Oglethorpe University, Rhodes College, and Sewanee: The University of the South.

Hudson said Shane is a very hard worker in and out of the pool.

"He has worked really hard, and trained with different techniques to improve that breaststroke kick,” she said. He has worked on different things and has been pulling buckets and doing some unconventional types of things, as well as time in the water. He has improved so much and he has that will-not-die attitude. He will race, fight and scrap to the bitter end. I look forward to watching him in his collegiate career."

Ross Hudson accepted an offer to study and swim for the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and plans to pursue a direction in the engineering profession.

"It means the world to me," he said. "I have been working on this scholarship since I was 7 years old — when I started swimming. It has just been my dream to swim in college. I have worked so hard all of my life athletically and academically to get scholarships to this school. They recruited me for everything. I can swim all of the strokes fairly well and I can swim in any of the events."

Academically, he plans to test the waters before jumping in with both feet.

"I plan to major in chemical engineering but I am thinking about going into general so I can take an overview class and get all of the different engineering topics so I can make sure that what I am looking at really is chemical," he said.

His coach and mom, Cathy Hudson, said his his strengths were his conditioning and command of each stroke: back, breast, butterfly and free. But the fly and the free were probably his best.

"The 100 butterfly was probably his best stroke here, as well as 200 IM, and he also swam short freestyles, 400 freestyle and 200 free relay," she said. "In college they are probably going to use him as a 200 flyer and in 400 IMs because he can swim all four strokes and has all that conditioning behind him."

The Florida Tech Panthers compete in the Sunshine State Conference.

Legg will pursue a professional art career through the Savannah College of Art & Design in Savannah, Ga.

"Since the first time I figured out what a scholarship was, it’s pretty much been my goal,” she said. "It’s pretty exciting. It's just really nice to know all of the hard work I’ve been doing over the years totally paid off. I am really happy with what I got.”

Legg's premier event is the backstroke. “I’d like to think that I have decent times in most things but mostly I am a backstroker,” she said. “That gets me where I need to go, so that is one of my strong points."

Out of the pool, she plans to dive into her artistic concentrations.

"Hopefully illustration and all the little ones that go with that, like print-making," she said.

Her coach said Legg's work ethic was, “Simply amazing. They are salivating for her to get there. She has the best work ethic that I have ever seen in the swimming pool. She trains harder than anyone I have ever seen in the 40 years I’ve been doing this. Every day she will work as hard as she possibly can and every day in that water she is working as hard as she can and the results show it. She is going to be the best thing that has ever happened to the Savannah College of Art & Design swim team.”

SCAD is the first art and design university in the United States to offer a comprehensive, intercollegiate athletics program. The Bees had 13 swimmers in the NAIA Nationals this year with two championship records set.

Hannah is the daughter of George and Francesca Legg, Ross is the son of Rick and Cathy Hudson and Thomas is the son of David and Andrea Shane.