Junior Jeff Bray has had an outstanding performance in swimming throughout his high school career. Bray has been swimming since a young age and has stuck with it to better himself.
“I started swimming when I was little on a league team called the Jags, I started to love it and stuck with it to better myself, and for a good workout,” Bray said.
But not only was that boost to keep going, he had a lot of support from his family and coaches. From just motivating him to improve and making challenging sets for him, he’s had a lot of support.
“My biggest motivation was to improve my body and my biggest supporters were my parents by telling me to keep practicing and to not give up. I would also like to shout out Jerry Clark or Coach J for motivating me to work hard in the weight room,” Bray said.
As a result of having so much support and encouragement Bray has had quite some achievements. Also, he has learned different ways to perfect his swimming and strokes from past coaches.
“All my times overall were improved during the time I had John Sincroft as a coach. I learned more about how to swim faster with technique instead of just ‘powering through.’ I wasn’t tiring myself out, I just focused and that made me excel even more,” Bray said.
Bray has had some tough practices to build his endurance and swimming. This has made him realize that over the years his coaches were only pushing him to better himself, and see what he is capable of.
“Definitely the hardest parts were the practices with Sincroft and Coach Gabe, they made challenging practices and encouraged everyone to work hard during those practices to not give up on them. Over the years, I reflect and see how helpful that has been for me,” Bray said.
With all the work Bray has put in, he has goals he would like to achieve before the end of the swim season. This year has been tough from having practice six days a week to having meets up to two or more days out of a week. He would like to see where this hard work could take him.
“I hope to achieve faster times at sectionals this year in my events, and I also hope to see the seniors achieve their overall and personal goals to finish off their high school swim careers,” Bray said.
Bray has been on the team for three years going on four and has had some memorable moments but one stuck out to him the most.
“The moment I remember most was my freshman year after a big meet Sincroft took the boys to Subway. It was just a nice thing for him to do and also a good team bonding moment for the boys team.
Swimming takes a lot of mental and physical strength. Not only do you have to be prepared for waking up for early practices, but you also have to be prepared to endure the challenging practices that lie ahead.
“I would like to tell future swimmers to stay motivated and work hard. It will all be worth it in the end,” Bray said.