Senior Spotlight: Highland Park State Champion Kevin Obochi

A budding entrepreneur set to attend Columbia, Obochi has a bright future ahead.

Retiring Highland Park boys swim and dive coach Tim Sirois has had his fair share of high-level swimmers over the past few decades, but a senior in his final season brought home coveted hardware that has been a long time coming for the Giants. 

Obochi’s IHSA State swim meet 50 Yard freestyle victory in 20.34 seconds marked the first swimming title for the Giants in nearly 50 years. Obochi was part of a senior group that led HP to an overall 4th-place finish, while he had an individually strong finish to his high school career. 

In addition to the Columbia swimming commit’s state title, Obochi was on the 5th place 400 Yard Freestyle Relay alongside teammates Aron Fridman, David Daniels and Danny Castle, the 2nd place 200 Yard Freestyle Relay with Daniels, Castle and Ilya Rivkin and 3rd in the 100 Yard Butterfly. 

Obochi was on 3 winning events at the Lake Forest sectional, 2 winning events at the Lake County Invite as well as the CSL North Meet. 

This interview has been edited for clarity. 

CSLV: Assuming you’ve swam a long time, how long has it been?

KO: “Since I was 5 years old, 5 or 6 years old, I’ve been swimming since?”

CSLV: Did you swim in Highland Park, Stevenson/New Trier or elsewhere?

KO: “I started taking lessons when I was like 5, then Danny Weinberg was one of the HPAC, (Sic). When I was 5 or 6 he was like you guys should join HPAC (Highland Park Aquatics Club). I was on HPAC until a couple summers ago I switched over to PAC, which is a club in Stevenson.”

CSLV: Around what time did you find the spot where you really seemed to click with swimming? Was there a time where realized you could be really good at this?

KO: “It was probably when I ended quitting all the other sports I was doing and just focused on swimming so probably like 6 year old.”

CSLV: Was there a point where you realized where you would compete for the medal stand?

KO: “I came into the meet thinking I wanted to win at least one thing. I wanted to do it in the 100 Fly first because I felt that was where I had the best chance, but in prelims a kid (swam) a 47-something (47.46) 100 fly and I was like, maybe….so it was probably after the prelims 50 free when I came in second that I thought I had a pretty good shot of winning this, and I ended up winning.”

CSLV: What is that feeling like, being able to look up at the time and see that pop up and know what you accomplished? 

KO: “I felt great getting a win, especially since it’s my last year and my coaches’ last year. It honestly felt really good because of all the hard work I’ve put in.”

CSLV: What type of habits do you try to maintain outside of swimming that helps you be at peak performance during swimming season?

KO: “I always try to get enough sleep so I can manage my time. Sometimes I don’t manage it the best, but I try to manage my time well, get my homework done so I can go to bed early and obviously be rested for practice. I’ll stretch, go to the trainer if I’m hurt or anything and stay on top of my homework.”

CSLV: I heard you’re headed to Columbia. Have you always wanted to go to a top-notch institution or is that just something that came with the opportunity of swimming?

KO: “I always wanted to go to a great academic school. My brother goes to MIT. My dad is from Nigeria and my mom is from China. So they always had a really big emphasis on academics in school. They wanted me to go to the best academic school I could possibly go to and they always want me to put academics first, so why not go to one of the best academic schools in the country.” (He’ll study Economics there.)

CSLV: As far as clubs here, have you already done business-type stuff at Highland Park or had your own business ideas?  

KO: “I took an incubator class, but I didn’t really have any time for business clubs because Im swimming all the time, but I have my own clothing brand and I’ve always been selling anything I can on eBay during the pandemic and stuff, ever since I was young.”

(His clothing brand is called “Eek!)

CSLV: What specifically made clothing appealing to you?

KO: “I’ve always liked clothes… it was basically in the pandemic I had an idea to start something and I wanted to start a business. I had time during the pandemic.”

CSLV: For someone new to high school swimming, what should they expect if they’re trying it for the first time?

KO: “Expect to put time into it. Because you can only get better if you go to practice every day. Expect a good commitment. I don’t know how the coaching is going to change after (HP coach Tim Sirois) leaves but expect a really tight-knit group of kids who really care about each other and expect to be held accountable.”

CSLV: As far as teammates go, are there any teammates that really held you accountable or ones you could look up to?

KO: “I have this group of people, all the seniors, we’ve been swimming together since we were like 6 or 7. I grew up with them. We’ve always been working hard whether it’s age-group state or me and Danny (Castle) and that type of area. I feel like we all held each other accountable. Our freshman year we wanted to do something big for the program. We’ve just been working toward that ever since. I thought senior year everyone was working hard and putting everything in.”

CSLV: Do you have a favorite school subject?

KO: “English.”

CSLV: Favorite English teacher?

KO: Mr. Lawson. 

Favorite TV Show?

KO: “I don’t really watch TV.”

CSLV: What music gets you pumped up?

KO: “Probably Tyler, The Creator."