The varsity swim team has a potential new member. Freshman Berkley Gemar is an elite swimmer who has placed well in competitive meets. She started competitive swim when she was 5-years-old and has been swimming since.

“I feel like I can’t stop because I’ve kind of quit everything else for swim and it’s my favorite,” Gemar said.

Swimmers need to stay in a good headspace for meets to perform well. For Gemar’s best event, the 50 meter butterfly, she placed 6th in Zones which is a meet involving teams from 10 different states. 

“I don’t always have the best headspace. It’s really easy for me to get in my head or get anxious,” Gemar said. “I’m trying to work on getting better at being confident and ready.”

Gemar is surrounded by a coaching staff that she enjoys and helps her improve. She says there are a few coaches that she disliked, but they are mostly gone.

“Drew, our head coach, he’s really nice and helpful and then this year we got a new coach named Mykenzie,” Gemar said. “She’s really good at helping with your technique and dives.” 

Although Gemar has many supporters, like her parents, there is one coach in particular that is her biggest supporter.

“I do have this one coach who’s one of my favorite people ever. Her name is Ashton,” Gemar said. “She’s basically a second mom. I love her so much.”

One of Gemar’s biggest supporters is her mom. She has seen her change from a young swimmer to a more mature one.

“She’s really started to focus on all aspects – practicing consistently, setting goals, focusing on nutrition ect,” Jamie Gemar said.

Also, there are lots of challenges when it comes to being a parent of a swimmer.

“Early morning practices can be tough[…] competition swimsuits are also extremely expensive,” Jamie Gemar said.

Gemar hasn’t decided what she wants to do concerning swimming after high school. She is unsure if she wants to continue to participate in swim or if she would quit. 

“I keep going back and forth because high school plus college is eight straight years of competitive swimming [and] so many practices,” Gemar said.

If she were to continue to college, she has a few options in mind.

“Well I think Michigan has a good swim team. So does ‘Bama. ‘Bama was really really good,” Gemar said. “I don’t know if I want to go to a top school because that’s really hard work to get in.” 

Being a competitive swimmer is something that Gemar loves to do. If she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t have changed anything.

“Swim was always the original,” Gemar said. “I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”