Germantown Academy’s swimming and diving seniors leave behind a long legacy as they prepare to transition to college. The swimming and diving team is one of the strongest in the country, with the Germantown Academy Aquatic Club – more commonly known as the GAAC – ranking as a silver medal club and scoring almost 15,000 points this past swim season.
Along with these major accomplishments, the high school team is equally successful as they have achieved numerous awards and records throughout the years.
The seniors in particular have contributed to the club and school team’s many impressive achievements.
“The girls team [is] going four-peat undefeated for Easterns and Inter-Acs,” Emily Hamill ‘25 said.
This is a big success, but the team’s achievements go beyond just competitions. The upperclassmen also reflected on how they helped keep the team supportive and working together as they made their way through meets to become such a prestigiously ranked club.
“Yeah, we have some records and stuff,” Brandon Fleck ‘25 said, “but honestly just being a good mentor for the underclassmen, I feel like, is the most important part, and kind of passing down the team culture.”
The coaches also reflect on the importance of helping younger students start out their athletic journeys and guiding them, along with mentorship from the seniors, to become their best selves.
“My favorite thing about coaching is probably working with younger kids, getting them started, kind of watching them as they get their own motivations to progress and do new dives,” Coach Tom Henninger, head diving coach, said. “So, just introducing the sport to new divers.”
As the seniors say goodbye, they now face a whole new set of challenges as they move on to college sports.
“It was always a dream of mine swimming in college,” Sarah Freeman ‘25 said. “I didn’t know what caliber. I didn’t really care. I just knew I wanted to swim in college like my parents did, and I saw my brother go through the recruiting process, and I just worked hard and kept chasing after my dreams.”
Now those goals are coming to reality through the seniors’ perseverance and determination throughout their time at GA.
“GA has a lot of yardage in practice, and I think that’s just built me a good mentality and knowing what hard work and perseverance is,” Hamill said.
After the school year, many college athletics start almost instantly, though the requirements vary based on schools. While college athletics are similar to high school athletics, there are still many changes athletes face.
“College right now is different in the sense that I’ve heard it is more team-oriented,” Libby Brewer ‘25 said.
Included in this new training come many changes in practices and team culture. To prepare for these challenges, GA tries to design their seniors’ schedule to mimic a college athlete’s hours, as well as other things.
These various changes have also forced the seniors to concentrate their effort on certain aspects of their sport. This will be another big shift in their training as they transition from high school to college.
“I think I’m gonna do less yardage, less threshold,” Hamill said, “and I think I’ll focus in more on specific events, and not just, let’s be able to swim all the events, or let’s go to a meet and swim as many events as we can.”
As the seniors go, they pass their teams off to new captains and leaders leaving some advice for those to follow and reflecting on various important values, such as being able to balance perseverance and dedication with joy.
“Throughout high school, I would say really just keep working hard,” Freeman said. “But also learn to have fun.”
Most importantly, however, the seniors spoke about the importance of realizing and being grateful for the opportunities and privileges they had from being able to swim at GA.
“Even though practice might be heard, you know you might have a bad week,” Fleck said, “you’re gonna look back at that and think you wanted more of that, and you’re gonna regret not being grateful for the time.”
As the seniors begin their transition to college, the swimmers and divers reflect on their time at GA and their accomplishments.
“I’m just proud of the way we just worked hard,” Freeman said. “We try and bring the team together.”