During his years as a Carrollton Bluefin, Joshua Grover has earned the respect of his coaches and teammates in becoming one of the most decorated swimmers to come through the longtime year-round swim program.

And the Carrollton High School junior was recently honored by his peers from across the state upon being selected to represent Georgia at the United States Aquatics and Swimming National Convention in Jacksonville, Fla., this past week. Grover, who started with the Bluefins — a USA Swimming Club — when he was 4 years old, served as a junior representative.

Next year, he will be the senior representative from Georgia at the national convention in Greensboro, N.C.

Bluefin coach David Weeks said Grover has become an extension to the coaching staff for the Bluefin program in many ways in recent years, learning how the administrative side of things work for USA Swimming.

“Josh has been attending the Georgia USA meetings with me for the past four years. During that time, he has gotten to understand the way Georgia Swimming works and met lots of friends. Now he has the chance to represent Georgia and learn more about the governing body of swimming in the United States,” Weeks said.

Grover said it was an honor to be selected as one of the two Peach State representatives.

“It was definitely gratifying for me. I get to represent Georgia Swimming as a whole. I mean, there’s thousands upon thousands of swimmers in Georgia. Atlanta is actually the biggest swim club in the nation, so for me to be able to represent all these bodies, it’s quite an honor,” said Grover, who learned that he would be a representative at the Senior State Meet in late July.

While in Florida, Grover attended meetings with other swimmers from across the country to help determine the future direction of USA Swimming, as well as serving the best interests of athletes in Georgia.

Grover was in Jacksonville from Tuesday through Sunday and he spent a good bit of time learning how USA Swimming operates, as well as ways to improve it.

The Carrollton swimmer applied for four committees at the convention — Age Group Development, Athletes Executive, Senior Development and Convention Communication. He will find out if he is selected for the committees near the end of the month. If selected, he will be on the committee for a two-year period.

Along with his trip to Florida, Grover joined the National Collegiate Scouting Association over the summer, where he won a scholarship for the service, which asked what student-athletes had done this past summer in preparing for the school year.

Grover was selected for the Top Fin Award at the Bluefins’ end-of-year banquet in August, which goes to the swimmer that exhibits the best overall performance, grade average, community involvement and team leadership. He was also the Male Swimmer of the Year.

And with everything he’s accomplished over the past year, Grover said being able to represent swimmers from his home state on a national level definitely stands out.

“I had a whole bunch of fun. I met a lot of people from around the nation. It was really cool,” Grover said.