Skye Bilger '23 Recruiting Profile

I always loved swimming. As a 5 year old, I took lessons to learn the strokes, and on my first Summer team, I was placed in a 7-8 year old practice group, which was hard. I won my first race, and went on to take 2nd in the Summer league championship. 

After the Summer, I joined a local swim club and had success. After attending a North Baltimore Aquatic Club camp, I knew I wanted to swim for NBAC. I love challenging practices and their program. Even though it was a 100 mile round trip from our home, it was a great fit. Through NBAC, I was able to represent Maryland twice at the Open Water Festival in Ft. Myers - the top four 500 swimmers in the state were selected. 

COVID made things very difficult. For months, I swam in our swim spa alone to keep in shape. As practice resumed, a medical condition kept me out of the pool for nearly three months. With doctors issuing a clean bill of health, I resumed practice, but had lost a lot of ground. 

We hired a private coach to help bring me back. The schedule was demanding, with 7 days of practice at North Baltimore and additional practices with my private coach a couple times a week. Even with this demanding schedule, I wasn’t seeing the improvement I wanted.

So we discussed the situation with my private coach, and he felt NCAP might be worth looking into. The team was a few miles closer, and Coach Gemmell is a great coach.

It turned out to be just what I needed. I joined NCAP in August 2021, and have been making strong, consistent improvement under Coach Gemmell. 

I enjoy demanding practices, and a coach that helps draw out my best effort every day. As I look ahead to college swimming, I want to join a program that continues to develop me into the champion swimmer I know I can be.