Holland Christian's Emily Asselin rekindles love for swimming after mental health break

Emily Asselin didn't feel like herself.

The sport that had brought her so much joy for her entire life, all of a sudden didnt.

In fact, nothing did.

The Holland Christian swimmer was dealing with mental health issues that made it tough for Asselin to find the joy in anything.

So the all-state swimmer stepped away from the sport, skipping her junior season. The goal was to find herself outside of swimming and find the joy in everything.

One year later, the senior is back on the swim team and finding the joy in the sport once again.

"I just had a breakthrough with my mental health and it got really bad. I needed to take a break and refocus my mindset," Asselin said. "I think mental health is such an important thing. I encourage people to take a break from things if they need to. It has helped me so much. I have a completely different look on swimming. I love it even more than I did. Teams are family and we have to take care of each other."

That was the first thing Holland Christian coach Lisa Myrick thought of when Asselin approached her about stepping away.

"When she told me, I was very proud of her. That takes a lot of courage and a lot of guts to give up something that is such a big part of her life," Myrick said. "As someone who knows what it is like to go through something like that as a teenager, I was just blown away."

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It wasn't easy for Asselin.

"I cried a lot. It was so hard to take a break. I have swam my entire life. It is my love. But I had to find out who I was without swimming," she said. "It was finding a whole new person. I just feel better and have a whole different mindset going into this."

The joy is back and her teammates had a lot to do with it.

"I missed the team so much," she said. "I decided to come back senior year. Coach Lisa and the team have been so good about checking in on my mental health. I am very excited to be back."

And swimming extremely well.

Asselin won the 100-yard freestyle in Holland Christian's win over Holland on Tuesday at Holland Community Aquatic Center.

"I had expectations, but I have gone beyond them. I am very happy with how I am swimming. I didn't expect to be going around the same times I was going sophomore year. That has been really nice to see," Asselin said.

Myrick has also been pleasantly surprised.

"In the water, she is way above what I expected. I had no expectations really coming in, but she is working hard to get better," Asselin. "Her presence on deck and on this team is huge. She is a big part of this team personality wise. There was something missing last year, and now that she is back, it is a full team again."

The full team had a great meet against Holland, earning a 30-plus-point victory.

Holland Christian's Ruthie Ryden won the 200 freestyle (2:12.84). Annie Petrak won the 200 IM (2:22.45) ahead of teammate Maria Heeres (2:23.09). Lilly Ryden won the 50 freestyle (25.70) ahead of Asselin (26.30) and the 500 freestyle (5:38.98). Sydney Koning won diving (183.8) with Sadie DuBois (205.80) exhibitioning.

Holland's Natalie Legg won the 100 butterfly (1:05.92) holding off Heeres (1:05.96).

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Christian's Emily Asselin rekindles love for swimming after mental health break