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Miami Palmetto High School rising senior Oliver Cannings won the Yale Book Award at the Palmetto end-of-the-year awards ceremony. The award is for academic excellence and leadership.
He is going into his second year as captain of the varsity swim team. As captain he helps the coaches with practices and at the meets. He also mentors the younger swimmers on the team and gives them advice on racing techniques.
“I’ve been swimming for a while, so I can give advice,” he says.
He’s been swimming since he was six years old, participating mainly in medleys.
“This past year, at Palmetto, we did pretty well,” he says. “Better than my freshman and sophomore years. I made it to states for the third time. I won regionals. It was a good improvement year.”
He placed tenth and twelfth in his two events at state. Each time he has gone to states, he has improved on his time from the year before.
“The goal for me next year, I want to get top three,” he says.
The team goal is to qualify a relay team to go to states. Cannings trains year-round with the Gulliver Raiders Swim Club.
“We have a good training group there,” he says.
He’s in the pool early in the morning and again in the afternoon.
“Those are the jam-packed days,” he says. “There are some days, I will leave the house just before 5 a.m. I will pull back into the driveway at 8 p.m.”
He is interested in being on a college swim team.
“Ive been talking to a few schools,” he says. “I’m weighing out all my options seeing what kind of way forward for me there is. I’m not sure where I’ll end up and if I’ll be swimming.”
In college, he’s probably going to major in something in the realm of finance. His application list currently includes the University of Florida, Indiana University, the University of Texas, the University of Michigan and Florida State.
He’s deeply committed to Mission Hygiene, a community service he does with his friend Nico Pearles.
“We collect hygiene supplies,” he says. “Our first year, it was successful. Going into our junior year, we wanted to take it a step further and be more organized, and donate to a place where we can see the impact. We donated a lot of the supplies to the social worker at our school.
To have it for our school, I found that rewarding.”
Cannings says they work with the service club Interact, to collect donations for Mission Hygiene.
“It’s a point opportunity for the members,” Cannings says. “Outside of school, we collected through Pinecrest Premier soccer. We have done that for two years now.”
Last year, Cannings coached a basketball team in the Temple Beth Am League.
“My little brother was on the team,” he says. “We coached them in the fall.”
The team he coached was made up of seventh and eighth graders. He is likely to coach again this fall.
“Win or lose, we had a good time,” he says. “Our team was pretty good. To do community service in that way, and to help them out, it was so much fun.”
Just for fun, he also plays on a high school team in the league.
At school, he’s on Student Council for recruitment.
“We are in charge of recruiting the eighth graders,” he says. “We showcase all the different magnets we have. We’re in charge of doing the school tours.”
He’s also a member of the Finance Club, the National Honor Society, Interact and the Health Information Project.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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