Many success stories will be told as the Section Five winter sports season winds down. Few will be more impressive than Paul Tobin's.

Paul is a senior at Honeoye Falls-Lima High. He is a championship swimmer. At the recent Class B Section Five meet, Tobin claimed the 50 yard freestyle and swam on the Cougars winning 400 relay team. But it isn't so much what the kid accomplished that impresses, it's how far he came to do it.

"I missed the swim season last year because of health issues," said Tobin. "I've been doing a lot of work outside the pool as well as inside. It's basically me getting sober and being able to come back to the sport, work really hard and be able to come back a new person."

A year ago Tobin was out of sight, out of mind. Remanded west for treatment of an addiction problem.

"He hooked up with some kids he probably shouldn't have hooked up with and got doing some things he shouldn't have," said HFL swim coach Norm Schueckler. "His parents caught on, decided enough was enough, and sent him to the west coast for treatment. He spent six months out there, came back and he was ready to roll."

Tobin caught a couple of real breaks. His parents Patrick and Kati were pro-active enough to address the problem head on. And Schueckler proved to be the perfect role model. He had experience.

"Not a night went by when I didn't have several drinks before I went to bed," says Coach. That was 17 years ago.

Schueckler recognized the problem in himself and quit cold turkey. He's both proud and concerned for his star swimmer.

"I sat with him and said, 'I've been there.' It's really, really hard. It's always a huge success when you get past that first year. But I still worry because he's so young."

So far though, so good.

"He came back from the dark side," says Schueckler. "He's been a leader and our team loves him. They just think the world of him and he's done everything right."

As a sophomore, Tobin didn't qualify for the state swim meet in any individual events. He didn't swim competitively during his exile, but made better use of his free time, and came back ripped. Paul insisted on returning to HFL this year to right some wrongs.

"I'm sober for a year and a half and it's an honor to be here," he says now. "It's just great to be able to come back and know I've done my best, in and out of the pool."