by Craig Morgan, TheSunDevils.com writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- By the time Chloe Isleta reaches the end of the 2016-17 swim season, maybe she'll feel comfortable enough to break out the ukulele that coach Bob Bowman calls the perfect instrument for the diminutive freshman, and then hop up on the starting block and belt out Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself" before the Sun Devils begin practice.
"I learned how to play it on YouTube," Isleta admitted, before rattling off other songs she plays. "I love my ukulele. I'm so sad that I didn't bring it to ASU. I think when my mom comes she might bring it."
Isleta will have plenty of time to show off those fast fingers. For now, she's trying to achieve some fast times.
Isleta won the California state championship in the 200 IM her senior season at Presentation High School in San Jose, California. She also set high school records at various stags of her prep career in the 100 backstroke, 200 medley relay, 100 fly, 100 free, 50 free, 200 IM, and she was part of the Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics swim club that won the Junior National Championships in winter and summer from 2014-16.
Despite that impressive resume, Isleta knew there was another level she could achieve with the right training and the right opportunity. When she heard Bob Bowman was taking the head-coaching job at Arizona State, Isleta saw that opportunity -- if she could just convince him she was worth the gamble.
"I wanted my swimming to get better and I've always looked up to Bob -- who wouldn't with what he's done?" she said. "I looked up the email addresses for all the coaches on ASU's website but I didn't see his so I thought it has to be similar to the other coaches so I typed it up, I emailed him to say 'I'm interested, here are my times' and I was like, 'if I don't get him at least I tried.'"
Within hours, Bowman emailed her back expressing a mutual interest.
"I ran through the house and I told my mom, 'I have Bob Bowman's email address!'" Isleta said, laughing.
As it turned out, Bowman and Isleta had a mutual connection, her club coach, Tony Batis.
"She was actually one of the very first to contact us after I got the job," said Bowman, who called Batis and received a glowing review. "She's a dream to work with. She always listens, she does everything you ask and then thanks you for it at the end. She's got these great leadership qualities to her, too. One of the reasons we recruited her is because of her personality. She's such a great person and a positive influence for others."
Isleta is 5-foot-1. It's not a common height for elite swimmers, and the average height of Olympic finalists ranged anywhere from 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-11 at the last two Olympics, depending on the event, but Bowman sees other attributes.
"There is no significant disadvantage to her length," Bowman said. "The physics of swimming are that taller swimmers probably have greater speed potential, but I think what smaller swimmers can do is kick under water and that is a great advantage, especially in college."
Underwater prowess has been a focus of Isleta's since she was 4, she said, but she was further sold on ASU after a conversation with senior assistant coach and Olympic gold medalist Misty Hyman in which Hyman stressed the importance of that skill.
Bowman's staff has also focused this season on increasing Isleta's physical strength, teaching her how to manage a race by breaking it down into segments, and altering some techniques like getting her head and arms lower in her fly.
"We are tweaking other things but she had very good technique already which was another reason I recruited her," Bowman said. "I think she can improve a lot and we've added another dimension to her approach with a higher volume of training. We've also improved her kicking which was already very good, but we're getting it to a world-class level.
"She's definitely talented so we're going to see what she can achieve."