Forged by FAU - Nick Swan
9/27/2020
Gallery: Nick_Swan
The fact that they [FAU Coaches] honored my scholarship and told me not to worry about a thing brought myself to tears and my family, everyone was very emotional. It impacted my entire view of FAU. From Day One it’s been a family, and it’s been that way the entire way through.
Florida Atlantic University baseball gave Nick Swan a chance in 2015 when few other programs would, and since graduating last year, the former pitcher is repaying its faith.
Talent was the never the issue for Swan, whose arm powered his travel baseball team to two National Championships and high school team to a State Championship. Health was. Swan suffered multiple injuries in high school and didn’t throw a single pitch as a senior after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
College interest in Swan began to fade. Swan says teams started viewing his injury history as a “liability.”
But not FAU. Coach John McCormack stuck by Swan, who committed as a junior, and honored his scholarship. That meant “everything” to Swan.
“Just knowing they were going to stick with me through that gave me a lot of pride in stepping in front of FAU,” Swan said, “knowing that whatever happens in my college career – good, bad and everything in between – that they were going to be with me the whole time and they’d still have trust and faith in me.”
Swan arrived at FAU in fall 2015 but was unable to throw off the mound until midway through the semester. He rehabbed hard to do so. But as the spring season neared, Swan knew getting to the next level required him to “prove myself really, really quickly, and I had a short amount of time to do it.”
Despite the late start Swan did exactly that. Swan earned Conference USA All-Freshman honors as a middle reliever, notching a 3.09 ERA and an immaculate 3-0 record in a season he describes as “surreal.”
The end to Swan’s career was as surreal. Swan led FAU to a 2019 C-USA Championship win with a scoreless six-inning performance, earning All-Tournament honors. He then recorded three outs in the Owls’ NCAA Regionals win over Mercer, his final collegiate outing.
“It opened very well, closed very well,” Swan said of his college career. “And it’s kind of like my experience getting recruited by them. I started off highly recruited early on in my high school career, went through some ups and downs in between, and then ended up getting to go to FAU, which is a great, great place.”
FAU did more than advance Swan’s baseball career. It also advanced his professional career.
As a senior, Swan met his academic advisor to discuss job opportunities. The advisor connected him with FAU basketball alum Justin Massey, who graduated a year prior and worked at Northwestern Mutual’s Boca Raton branch.
“I met Justin for lunch with one of our mentors, Ian Gordon, and from there the rest is history,” said Swan, who began working as a Northwestern Mutual financial representative in June. “Very fortunate to make those little connections along the way for setting myself up for the real world.”
Swan now utilizes the skills he developed as an FAU student-athlete in the financial realm. Time management, coachability and work ethic are all key components of the job, Swan says, and he feels former student-athletes have an inherent advantage over non-athletes.
That’s why Swan plans to bring more to his company. In January, he and Massey will handle Northwestern Mutual’s local college recruiting. Swan won’t have to travel far to find FAU student-athletes; his office is only 10 minutes away from campus.
“It’s really cool to be able to go to FAU, start my career right down the road, then give that same opportunity to others,” said Swan, who majored in communication studies and minored in marketing at FAU. “It’s awesome.”
Swan plans to grow into a bigger management role at Northwestern Mutual, acquiring “a bunch of really, really good” advisors to work alongside him. It’d be his “dream” for those advisors to be former FAU student-athletes.
At Northwestern Mutual, Swan is positioned to give opportunities to others. He was on the opposite end of that equation as a high school baseball recruit. And since FAU showed faith in him back then, Swan will continue to do so for the university’s graduates.
“The fact that they honored my scholarship and told me not to worry about a thing brought myself to tears and my family, everyone was very emotional,” Swan said. “It impacted my entire view of FAU. From Day One it’s been a family, and it’s been that way the entire way through. It was definitely great from a monetary standpoint, but more so from an emotional standpoint, having a group of coaches and school really believe in you and grow from that.”