Kaley Ream '22 Recruiting Profile

I started swimming when I was five, on a small summer team just for fun. From the second I started it, I fell in love with the sport and the competition. I begged my parents to join a year round swim club, and eventually joined my club team when I was nine. A few years later, I started swimming with my current coach, who has been a mentor and a friend to me for many years.

There is a special bond that every swimmer has with her coaches and teammates, one that I believe is unique to swimming. My coach is someone who can help me to push myself past all of my limits, and is there to support me in the process of achieving my goals. My teammates are my best friends; they are people that I encourage during the hardest practices, and they are the people that encourage me to press on when it gets really tough.

My main goal going into the season this year was to qualify for  the State Championship Meet in the 500 free and 100 fly. My coach helped me to know exactly what I needed to do to achieve my goal. Every day, I repeated splits in practice, pushing myself, encouraged on by my coach and teammates. Everyday when it got hard, we reminded each other of our goals, knowing that hard work was the only way to achieve those goals.

Outside of actual practices, one of the most challenging parts of being a swimmer is keeping up with academics throughout the season. However, I have been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA through all the late night and early morning practices. I was even named student of the month at my high school in March this year. Recently I was awarded an academic letter for my achievements during my 9th grade year, and I value it as much as I do the varsity letter that I received for swimming at my high school.

At the end of the season, I was excited to qualify for State in the 100 fly and 500 free. I also finaled in the 500 free, and came in 9th place overall in the state. Achieving my goal of qualifying for the state meet this year inspired me to strive for finaling in the 100 fly, and making the A final in the 500 next year. As a USA swimmer I am working toward qualifying for the Junior National meet. Looking forward, I want to continue to qualify for higher level meets and achieve personal best times to become a better swimmer. I plan to continue to improve and push myself in the sport as well as in academics through high school and into college.