When the beginning of the school year starts up students start preparing for the upcoming fall sports such as volleyball, football, swimming and more.
For some of these students, it is their last season being a part of the Timber Creek athletic program. Manuela Barres is one of these student-athletes who has committed to the University of North Florida on a scholarship to swim at the collegiate level.
Barres has been swimming since she was one year old but started club swimming at the age of eight, she started swimming because she had been diagnosed with ADHD and swimming was great therapy for it, she soon fell in love with the sport and kept swimming. The long recruiting process that started at the end of her sophomore year and consisted of time, dedication and hard work, can be considered worth the wait for the accomplishments that come along the way. Starting her swimming career in Sao Paulo, Brazil playing for a club called Paineiras do Morumby and going all the way to winning the national championship for her country and going to Olympic trials in Rio, 2016. From this moment on Barres knew she wanted to take it a step further and continue swimming at the collegiate level.
The process of recruitment by using collegeswimming.com is the website that helped Barres accomplish her dreams of swimming in college. This website gives college coaches access to your swim times and improvements which is how she found the University of North Florida.
Preparation for this high level of swimming is intense, Manuela’s weeks consist of six days full of practices which include six swim practices in the afternoon, two out of the six days consist of morning swim practice and three out of the six days contain morning practices of weights. “There was a lot of dedication and perseverance needed, it was very challenging but that’s what made it fun!” said Barres.