Diving
Favorite athlete: Nadia Comaneci
Favorite team: USA National Diving Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: Qualifying for districts my junior and senior year. The first time I qualified last year I was coming off a really bad warm up, so I wasn’t expecting to have a great meeting, but I ended up scoring my personal best!
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Last year before the SOL Diving Championships, my teammate Kat Craig and I were talking about how we’ve never seen a diver disqualified from a meet. In the last round of that meet, I failed two dives resulting in my being disqualified. I was disappointed when it happened, but now we laugh about the irony!
Music on iPod: Disney, pop, country
Future plans: Major in nursing
Words to live by: “If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme.” – Jiminy Cricket
One goal before turning 30: Visit the Seven Natural Wonders of the World
One thing people don’t know about me: I am awful at holding my breath.
By GORDON GLANTZ
Great.
It’s not a word that should be tossed around carelessly, lest truly great achievers and their achievements become diminished.
But when it comes to diver Grace Berichon, Council Rock North swimming coach Ted Schueller can’t contain himself.
And if the label fits, why not use it?
“She is a great person,” he said. “She has been a great captain for the other divers and for the team.
She has been a great leader and has peaked at the right time of the season.”
Indeed she has.
Berichon is coming off a personal-best finish of fourth place at the Suburban One League Diving Championships.
“She has done some of her best diving at the end of the season,” Schueller continued. “That was the most consistent I have ever seen Grace dive -- from start to finish, at that level of competition -- during her high school career.
“She has worked hard both on the boards and in the weight room and dry land with the swimmers.… She had been great for the younger divers.”
Berichon’s mindset entering Districts for the second straight year is to stay focused and be one of the 16 divers to reach the finals.
While 10 of those 16 reach states, she is not putting the cart before the horse.
“My goal is to make it to finals this year,” said Berichon, who didn’t begin diving until she was a high school freshman, and only after an elbow injury ended her gymnastics career. “I’m hoping to do well.”
When the time comes to dive, she realizes that channeling the nerves into positive energy will yield the best results in what she calls “a mental sport.”
Berichon says she often psyched herself out as a young gymnast and learned her lesson then about mental approaches.
“I try not to put too much pressure on myself,” she explained. “You just have to trust in yourself and your abilities.
“It’s about repetition and muscle memory. (A gymnastics background) always helped in terms of self-awareness of my body.”
No matter how it goes, the “G” word – great -- does not go off the table.
“Grace always has a smile on her face and has a great outlook on everything. She is very supportive of her teammates,” said Schueller. “She is getting ready for Districts this Saturday. So we will see how she finishes her high school career.
“We will miss her next season for a lot of reasons.”
The feeling is mutual from Berichon, who entered Council Rock North from St. Andrews knowing exactly one person the first time she walked into the school cafeteria for lunch.
“I’m going to be really sad,” she said. “I’m going to miss my team and miss going to practices.”
Berichon, who was also a cheerleader until this year, recalls being shy as a freshman diver and how the team was sort of considered a separate entity from the regular swimmers.
“We have all grown so much as a team since then,” she said. “It has been a process over time.”
On a personal level, the bond she built with fellow diver Katherine Craig – a freshman at Penn State -- was an inspiration to reach new heights.
“At first, she was just the ‘older girl,’ who was so much better than me,” said Berichon, an Ohio native. “That’s where I wanted to be. Over time, she just became like my best friend. We even look alike, and people mistake us for being sisters. I just love her.”
She will certainly be missed beyond the swim team, as Berichon has made her impact felt throughout the school community.
The list of in-school activities:
-French Club
-French, Math and Science honor societies
-National Honor Society
-Distinguished Honor Roll
-Kick-Off Mentoring, which helps incoming freshman transition to high school.
“Actually, being busy helps me get things done,” she said, with a chuckle. “It motivates me more to get my school work done.”
Outside of school, Berichon works as a lifeguard at Council Rock for the community program, is an assistant diving coach in the summer at Richboro Swim Club and a counselor at Little Buds Day Camp
For “fun,” she joins her sister, Emara, at the Studio of Dance & Performing Arts.
And it’s not like her lone focus on sports is limited to the swim team.
Berichon will soon transition to the track and field team. She competes in pole vault, hurdles and the triple jump.
Like diving, track and field became a post-gymnastics diversion during her sophomore year, but she has come to excel – particularly at the pole vault -- and hopes to make districts this spring.
As for the future, Berichon was set to attend either Ohio State or Pitt to pursue a degree in nursing, but opportunity has knocked with a job transfer of her father, Timothy, who works in security for ADT.
The family is moving to Johannesburg, South Africa, and she would like to work there as a volunteer for a year working with children who have been orphaned or who have AIDS.
“It would be a chance to immerse myself in the culture,” she said. “I just want to jump at the opportunity.”
Berichon says the influence of her mother, Stephanie, has made her the type of person who wants to help others – whether it is as a mentor to younger students, a camp counselor, a nurse or a volunteer in Africa.
“I think that comes from my relationship with my mom,” she said. “She has always been my No. 1 cheerleader, and I think I just carry that over to my relationships with other people.”
