The air is tense with anticipation. Every girl in the gym has been eagerly awaiting this moment. The music starts and the boys swim team emerges. It’s the winter sports assembly and it’s time for the speedo dance.

But this year, a key member of the Bullfrogs is missing in action. His last year year as a bulldog, he won’t get a chance to prance around the gym in the swim team’s new checkered speedos, sending Garfield’s female population into a frenzy. Instead, co-captain Reid Walker is off swimming with his club team.

Walker was bummed he had to miss the winter sports assembly this year, but his hard work has paid off. He won the state competition in the 500 freestyle just a few weeks ago.

In addition, he has qualified as an All American automatic. For everyone that doesn’t speak swimmer, this means that not only is he in the top 130 swimmers in the country, but he was guaranteed his spot there by beating the automatic qualification time of 4:35.51 in the 500 meter competition.

Walker started his swimming career at the age of six with a club team, Swim Seattle. His five older siblings all swam, so Walker naturally jumped on the bandwagon. But since then, his siblings have moved on to other sports. Walker and his oldest sister are the only ones who have stuck with it. She swam for Harvard in college.

Walker continued to swim on club teams all throughout elementary and middle school. Then, he took some time off his freshman year and part of his sophomore year to play high school water polo.

Now, Walker doubles up high school swimming with swimming for his club team, Cascade. He has a grueling schedule with club swimming, practicing 9 – 10 times a week, which amounts to a total of about 16 hours. It’s a wonder he can maintain a grade point average of 3.85.

“It’s definitely worth it in the end,” he says.

The Garfield swim team provides a nice break from the intense atmosphere of club. The environment is much more relaxed.

Walker says it’s his teammates that make swimming enjoyable for him. They make practices less stressful and more fun. They also inspire him to get better.

“Trying to beat people you know makes you work harder,” he says.

This year, Walker went to state along with swimmers Andy Fulton, Michael Snyder, Jason Hu, Gary Kuo, Andrew Nameth, and diver Alec Ginn.

Walker swam the 500 freestyle. He was up against Eisenhower’s powerhouse Ian Wheeler. Despite his impressive ammount of talent, Walker stays extremely humble. He wasn’t expecting to win.

“The guy I was racing is quite a bit faster than me,” Walker said.

But, apparently he was wrong about that. Walker won by eight hundredths of a second.

“I had a good race and he didn’t,” Walker modestly explained. “That’s what I needed [to win].”

After the race, the podium was set up on the deck and the swimmers were called up, starting with eighth place and ending with Walker in first. On the top tier, he was handed his medal.

“It’s how much work and dedication you put into it,” he said.

Walker will attend UC Davis next year. He earned an athletic scholarship, which is no small accomplishment either. Both UC Davis’s men’s and women’s teams took the Big West conference titles this year.

Beyond next year, Walker hasn’t planned out his swimming future. He’s going to see how college swimming goes, and take it from there. Although, he admits that he would really like to swim in a NCAA championship.

Walker will be greatly missed after he moves on from Garfield. No matter where life takes him, it is clear that great things are in store for Reid Walker.