Faikish brings National Select Camp experience to North Penn

This past Friday against Central Bucks East, Sean Faikish broke the North Penn school record in the 100-yard backstroke, along with anchoring the 400 free relay team to a Rick Carroll Natatorium pool record, joining Luke Schwar, Ryley Fein and Nick Clark.

Earlier in the week, the North Penn boys set six pool records on an afternoon visit to Pennridge.

It’s barely mid-January, and this North Penn team is already shaping up as one to remember.

“We’re one heck of a team. We’re ready to compete,” Faikish said happily after Tuesday’s clash with the Rams. “Just the positive atmosphere all around us is just great. We’re hoping to win a state title, bring it back for the first time in a while…”

For Faikish, this season didn’t start in home waters, but rather, at a much higher altitude.

Rare Air

Faikish was one of just 96 athletes in the entire country to be selected to USA Swimming’s National Select Camp this past October.

“You’re at the pool where all of the Olympians train for the Olympics, and where all of the national kids train, which is the stage I wanna get to eventually,” said Faikish, a standout junior for North Penn. “So just being in that pool, being with that coaching staff, being at the facility itself — it was just awesome.”

During the four-day camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., the athletes attending got to experience the day-to-day routine of a National Team athlete and swim in the United States Olympic Committee’s state-of-the-art training facilities. The campers learned from top aquatic professionals about post-race recovery, psychological training skills, nutrition and race strategy.

Swimmers are selected from the SWIMS database using their top time during the 2018 qualifying period. The three fastest athletes in each event, ranging from age 14 to 16, were invited.

“The National Select Camp provides swimmers, who are on the cusp of reaching international-level competition, with invaluable opportunity, tools and experience to help continue the upward trajectory of their swimming careers,” said USA Swimming’s Senior Director of Education, Programs and Services, Mariejo Truex.

“That was a lot of fun. It happened to be during water polo season so I wasn’t in the best shape for swimming but it opened my eyes a lot,” said Faikish, who was also a key piece of North Penn’s State Title team in water polo. “I could see people from around the country that were just as fast or even faster than me. But it was a lot of fun — I learned a lot. I brought it back to the team to incorporate it into the rest of our season.”

Swimmers came from all over, from “California all the way down to Texas…Florida,” Faikish said. “There were a lot of kids from PA actually. There were seven, which happened to be the most out of any state. So having seven kids there that I know, that I’ve been swimming with my whole life. It was awesome. I hung out with them and met a lot of new people too.”

Faikish, representing North Penn Aquatic Club, saw some familiar faces in Matt Bonnell (Plymouth-Whitemarsh Aquatics), Matt Jensen (Upper Dublin Aquatic Club) and Zachary Kohm (Germantown Academy Aquatic Club), among others.

The setting, however, was not so familiar, but awfully inviting.

“It was the most humbling experience I’ve ever had in my entire career,” said North Penn High and North Penn Aquatic Club coach Jeff Faikish, who guided the NP girls to their second state title in three years a season ago and the boys to a State Runner-Up spot. “You step foot off a bus that says United States Olympic Training Center on it, and you are there at the mecca of all athletics.

“You learn a lot. You check your ego at the flight from Philadelphia. It was the most beneficial thing I think I’ve had in my career, being able to be out there and see the potential.”

Said Jeff of his nephew’s experience in the Centennial State: “I think that training camp opened his eyes to possibilities.”

Bringing It Back

Both swimmer and coach are eager to share what they experienced.

“Bringing it back to this team, this team is my family,” Sean Faikish said. “We train together, wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning to go to morning practice, see each other all throughout school and after-school practices until 6 o’clock.

“Just everything we do together is awesome. And I’m hoping the rest of the season turns out the way we want it to be.”

Said Jeff: “We came back reinvigorated, excited to try some new things that we learned. And we felt real confident about the things we learned there that we’re already doing.

“So it was a wonderful balance of reassuring what we do and learning some new things along the way. I think you can see some of the production in the pool right now with both the boys and the girls teams. Everybody is looking really good.”

Records have already begun to fall. Sean Faikish dreams of — and is working towards — a State Gold, something that narrowly eluded him the past two seasons.

He also is intent on helping to lead the Knights in their quest for the program’s first state title since 2004.

“Runner-Up last year — hoping to carry that momentum into this season,” he said.

“We weren’t sure what was gonna happen with our boys program, because we lost some quality leaders from last year,” coach Faikish said. “(Sean) and the entire team are all moving in the same direction and they seem to be a very highly-motivated group of individuals right now.

“They’ve got a very long road ahead of them and they certainly have their work cut out for them, but as long as they make sure they follow the course and they make sacrifices, they’ll be able to see success in the end.”

They’re enjoying the journey.

“The way I look at it, I’m ready to compete,” Sean said, “ready for any challenge I may face.”