Swimming
Favorite athlete: Gretchen Walsh
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the swimming State championships my freshman year of high school
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Falling into the pool when the officials say stand instead of go (this has happened too many times).
Music on playlist: My favorite song right now is “Sports car” by Tate McRae
Future plans: Swimming D1 at Towson University
Words to live by: “It's not how you start but how you finish.”
One goal before turning 30: Run a marathon
One thing people don’t know about me: I have 2 dogs (pit bull mixes named Buddy and Tuna)
By GORDON GLANTZ
In comparison to other competitive swimmers, Hatboro Horsham’s Emmy Erikson was late to the sport.
Once she made the transition from swimming for fun to doing it for sport, her will to win took over.
And she has been swimming downstream ever since.
That’s why her words to live by -- “It’s not how you start but how you finish” --have also become her words to swim by.
“I started swimming when I was going into middle school, like in my seventh grade year,” Erikson said. “When I joined, there were a ton of kids that had been swimming since they were 5-6 years old. I knew how to
swim, but I was never on a swim team.”
Taken aback at first, Erikson’s competitive juices started flowing.
“I got the hang of it, and now I’m just as good as they were, if not better than the kids who were swimming since they were 5-6 years old,” she said. “I knew how to swim going into it. I have always been kind of competitive, and I didn’t like that there were kids who were faster than me. I just worked really, really hard and I got where I wanted to be.
“When I started, I didn’t like the fact that people were better than me. Every single day at practice, I worked to be the best and worked as hard as I possibly could.”
Which brings us to a related point of view. Erikson believes that nothing should be left on the table.
She wants to be able to look in the mirror and like what she sees.
“If I don’t reach my goal, at least I can say that I worked as hard as I possibly could to get to it,” she said. “If I know I tried my best, I know I can’t be too mad if I don’t reach my goals. I know that I have done everything that I possibly could have. That motivates me at practice.”
The Final Lap
The high school leg of her journey ended recently at Bucknell University where she was a key part of a pair relay teams that captured gold and helped to bring the Hatters a third-place team finish in the state that was nearly a second.
For her part, Erikson took fourth place in the 200 free and seventh in the 100. She swam legs in the 200 and 400 free relays as well.
“She had a good meet,” said Emig. “She medaled in both (individual) races, which was better than last year. She has gotten better every year that she has been there. The first year, her freshman year, she swam one relay leg. Her sophomore year, she swam one individual and two relays. Then, it was two and two, both last year and again his year. She has really worked her way up to becoming a pretty good swimmer.”
In the final analysis, that’s all a coach can ask for.
“Emmy is the perfect sports story,” said Emig. “She was a kid who just liked to swim when she was in sixth grade and seventh grade and didn’t really start until she was about that age. Every year, she just got a little better.
“She just strives to get better all the time. She is the kind of kid that you want to coach. She just progressed every year that she swam.”
Out with a Bang
While she is always pushing herself to improve, the Towson-bound Erikson was satisfied with how the final page of the final chapter of her scholastic career was written.
Ending with Annie Jia and Sarah Parker - the same two swimmers she joined forces with as freshmen who were vital to earning the state title - added to the emotion.
“It was bittersweet, because it was our last meet together,” said Erikson. “Particularly with those two seniors - we have been swimming together for so long now. It was kind of sad.
“We were really happy with how it ended. None of us had our best times or anything, but we had a good time and we placed well overall. We just took it as it was, just one step at a time. We did our best and we went out with a bang.”
Gold Rush
Although she took to competitive swimming like a fish to water, Erikson surprised herself by helping the Hatters to it a state title as a freshman.
“It was really exciting,” said Erikson. “It was me and two other friends that were new to the team, and we really didn’t know what to expect in the first year of high school.”
The older swimmers explained that they would be crucial going in.
“They told us about the (state) meet,” she said. “We were told we had a possibility of winning, and we got really hyped for it, and everything went in our favor and we ended up winning. It was a really fun experience. It was our first state championships, and we won.”
Emig will never downplay the impact the newcomers made in the gold rush.
“Those girls came in 2022, and they were really the reason we won a state title,” he said. “Emmy has worked her way up to becoming what she is now, and it has been real fun to watch. It’s a credit to her for the constant work she puts in. She does everything we ask her to do.
“She’s a hard worker, and also very inquisitive. She is always asking questions. She always wants to figure out a way to get better. She is just driven to do better. She focuses on all of it – her nutrition, her sleep, her training. She puts it all together.”
It was certainly a whirlwind ride for Erikson, going from first walking into the natatorium as a freshman to the winner’s circle at states as a freshman.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “Every day, I would go to my (middle school) practice, which would be after the high school practice. I would see all of them, and they all seemed really fast, so I didn’t really know how I would fit into the team.
“Once I was there, I realized I could really help out the team. I wasn’t expecting much going in. Once I was there, I got my groove on.”
The Next Step
In terms of moving on to the next level, the general feeling is that Towson’s adding of Erikson to the roster will be a heist that certainly other programs will be left kicking themselves for not taking a chance on her.
“She wanted to go to a bigger school, to a bigger program, but her times weren’t really quite there yet last year,” said Emig. “They are now. I feel as though she is going to enjoy herself at Towson. She keeps getting better, and I feel like some of those bigger schools are going to regret not taking a bigger chance on her.”
How does he know this? Because he has seen it with his own eyes.
“Leaving high school, you know she is the kind of a kid who is just going to keep getting better and better,” said Emig, the HH coach since 1991-92. “She’s that kind of a kid, and we are proud of her for that.”
Erikson, who boasts a weighted GPA of 4.5 and who plans to major in computer science with a minor in either finance or economics, will just use it all as motivation and give Towson everything she has.
“The summer going into my junior year was when colleges were allowed to start reaching out,” she said. “I remember sending a million emails to all different schools. Some schools said I was too slow. Some weren’t the right fit. They were too far away, and I knew I wanted to stay close to home.”
As it was, the late bloomer really needed to make her choice just as she was kind of making strides.
“I also definitely feel like the recruiting stage came at a weird time for me,” said Erikson. “At the end of last year until this year, I started to have a breakthrough with my practices. I started seeing the results that I wanted. Unfortunately, though, I had to make a decision before I got to see the outcome of my results, but I’m happy with my decision.
“The Towson coaches really wanted me, and I feel wanted on their team, but I definitely got a lot better during the recruiting process.”
Towson emerged on her radar from a club coach who swam there.
“I decided to just shoot them an email,” said Erikson. “One way or another, we started up having phone calls. I went on an official visit, and I really liked it.
“I’m really excited. I got to meet some of the girls who are also going my year.”
Erikson, who runs in 5Ks in the summer as part of her cross-training and who hopes to one day compete in a full marathon, is also encouraged by her general trend of improvement that included competing for the Hatboro Horsham and later the Upper Dublin aquatic clubs.
“I know that you can’t drop time every single meet,” she said. “But I think that I have gotten better and better in each of my events.”
Leading the Way
Being a key swimmer since her freshman year, it was only natural that the daughter of Kim and Ken and younger sister of Brandon was a tri-captain of the Hatters with Jia and Annie Goelz.
She is less a vocal leader and more of a one-on-one counselor who serves as a mentor to younger members of the squad.
“She leads by example, mostly,” said Emig. “Maybe not as much vocally, in a group setting, but she will talk to kids, individually, and help them out.”
Erikson, who wanted to thank all of her teammates and both Emig and assistant coach Michael McBrien, took the role seriously but also remained true to herself.
She also displays leadership while serving as a captain for Red and Black Spirit Week and the president of HH Helping Paws.
“As a captain, I really tried to make everyone feel included and heard and seen,” said Erikson, who is also a member of the National Honor Society. “I would go up to the kids who are maybe newer to the team, or who are more shy and ask them how are doing.
“I like to lead by example. Words can only go so far. You can’t tell somebody to go and do something and then not do it yourself. People tend to follow you more by how you act than by what you say.”
