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On Wednesday, high school swimmer Isaac Lee officially signed with the Auburn Tigers at Manchester Recreation Center with family members, friends, coaches and teammates also in attendance.

Lee, a home-schooled senior who had been swimming with the Manchester Makos most of his life, committed to Auburn over offers from North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia Tech.

“All of the offers I had were really good…” said Lee. “…but Auburn had more of a hometown feel to me that I didn’t get from anywhere else.”

The Auburn Tigers swimming and diving men’s team has won 18 Conference Championships and eight National Titles as a team throughout their history, which ties them for fifth all time with California and Stanford.

The program as a whole has also produced 30 Olympic swimmers and divers in their storied history, with eight of them winning Olympic Medals, so Lee will be joining a program that has a pretty rich history in the sport.

“From the time he was six years old, he missed a lot of parties and other events to spend extra time in the water and in the gym,” said Mom, Chesleigh Lee. “It’s so amazing to see that his hard work and dedication has paid off. I’m really proud of him.”

“The key to Issac’s success is his ability to work harder than anybody else in the pool,” said swim coach Shawn Daniels. “He’s also a nice guy, and talks to everybody on the team including the younger kids.”

Lee will have just one more year of high school level competition before heading off to college and with that in mind, he has just one goal. “I want to win a state title,” he said. “You only get to swim in two individual events there and I want to win them both. I want to take home the gold.”