The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Catching up with Women's Basketball's Tracie Swayden
08.08.2016 | Women's Basketball
Tracie Swayden (UT, 1994-95) now owns her own dermatology and skin care practice in DFW.
Mental toughness is a characteristic that has served Tracie Swayden well throughout her life. It's an attribute that she acquired in Austin during her playing days for the University of Texas women's basketball team.
Swayden, who lettered for the Longhorns from 1994-95, earned her bachelor's degree in biology from UT in 1998 and her M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2002. She logged 18.1 minutes per game during her season on the basketball team, averaging 3.7 points per game and 1.9 rebounds per game.
"Being a college athlete just really makes you mentally tough to take on whatever challenge it may be, whether it's med school or tragedies that you have in your life," Swayden said. "You know how to overcome obstacles and pick yourself up to keep going and work hard."
She credits, in large part, Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt with increasing her mental toughness and preparing her for many of the things she would encounter in her post-college days.
"Coach Conradt really tries to make you mentally tougher and focus on the task at hand, and not let everything else distract you," Swayden said. "She really challenges your mind, especially at a young age when you are transitioning from high school to college. She helps you grow but, at the time, you don't realize that's what she's doing."
That knowledge that Swayden acquired during her time on the Forty Acres has propelled her to the top of her field, now owning her own practice – SkinMD - in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
"I opened my own practice six years ago – it's a skin care and dermatology practice," Swayden said. "I have a surgeon, a physician's assistant and myself. We do cosmetics and injections, as well as overall skin health. A lot of people of all ages have skin issues. We're able to treat kids, as well as the elderly and everything in between, and really alleviate the stresses they have about skin conditions."
Swayden arrived in Austin from Amarillo High School, where she helped lead her team to back-to-back state championships in 1993 and 1994. Highly recruited out of high school, Swayden always had her sights set on being a Longhorn.
"I was recruited by all of the Texas schools and Texas Tech had just won a national championship, but I always had a dream to play for Texas," Swayden said. "Once you go visit there, the atmosphere just draws you in. It really was an easy decision and the only place I wanted to go."
It wasn't just what the University of Texas offered on the basketball court that appealed to Swayden. The fact that the support system was in place for her to succeed both as a pre-med student and an athlete was a major draw for the 5-foot-7 guard.
"They have the tools there for you," Swayden said. "They have counselors, tutors and study hall. I was the only one on the team at the time that was a pre-med major, so I had to make sure that I took my own time to either rest or study. It was hard when we were traveling because I had labs that were only once a week, so I had to fly back and make those labs. I couldn't let my GPA fluctuate. But the support is there for anyone who needs it."
The Longhorns had dominated the Southwest Conference prior to Swayden's arrival. Texas put together an unprecedented 183-game winning streak against SWC opponents that spanned 12 years and the entire decade of the 1980s. The Longhorns won the 1986 NCAA Championship as the first team to do so with an undefeated record.
During Swayden's year on the Texas roster, the Longhorns had a rare losing season with a 12-16 record. It was that adversity that helped ready Swayden for her future career.
"We hit a bump and our upperclassmen had a lot of injuries," she said. "But you have to look at the big picture. You have to keep working through those adversities to ultimately reach your goal. I think it has allowed me to be a business owner, an entrepreneur and get through obstacles in my life."
For Swayden, who always aspired to be a doctor, the field of dermatology was something that became of interest to her after she started medical school. It was a specialty that would give Swayden more work-life balance, while still allowing her to help a wide spectrum of patients.
"I always wanted to be a doctor, but I thought I wanted to do sports medicine," Swayden said. "My plans kind of changed when I went to med school. It was kind of just more of a lifestyle preference. To be able to juggle having a family and the sports practice, it would be a lot longer course and I would have to travel a lot. I decided that with this, it would be a bit easier to juggle a family."
Family has always been important to Swayden, who is the mother of two-year-old twins Tash and Avery. She is also a regular at Texas Exes Weekend in Austin, where she annually reunites with her Longhorn family. And she likes what she has seen from recent Texas basketball teams.
"I think Karen [Aston] is awesome," Swayden said. "To see her character and relationship with the girls has been awesome. She really understands the history and tradition that Coach Conradt started, and she has the tenacity to carry that out. I really appreciate the dedication that those coaches have; that is their life. I appreciate Coach Aston and Coach Conradt for the work they have put into this program."
It is a program that helped put Swayden on a course to be highly successful outside of basketball, both as a business owner and a mother.
"The mental toughness that they prepared me with allowed me to be successful in my life," she said. "It's not easy to go to med school, own your own practice and be a single parent. There is no course in college that can prepare you for that."