Her coach considers her the exception, not the norm. Unlike many elite athletes who earn a college scholarship, Elana Faria didn’t dedicate herself to her sport of choice at a young age.

Actually, the Bear River High School senior admittedly wasn’t much of a swimmer when she decided to go out for the sport in her freshman year.

Flutter kicks or kick turns? She didn’t have a clue.

“I didn't even know what a hundred was,” said Faria, a 17-year-old Lake of the Pines resident. “They said ‘OK, we're going to swim a hundred.' And I was like 'Does everyone swim a hundred laps? Are we serious?’ I just thought it would be fun. I never knew I'd be where I am right now.”

It’s not so much where she’s at, but where she came from and where she’s still headed.

Faria has signed a national letter of intent to swim for the San Jose State Spartans next year.

Daryn Glasgow knows how far Faria has come. As her coach in the year-round Bear River Swimming program, Glasgow still remembers when Faria, whom she considered a good recreational and high school swimmer at the time, proudly proclaimed she would one day swim on scholarship.

“I told her ‘You have no idea what it takes to get a college scholarship,’” Glasgow said. “‘We’ve got so much work to do.’

“She’s gone from being good recreational swimmer to being a good high school swimmer to being a sectional level, scholarship-worthy swimmer.”

But it wasn’t until about 18 months ago that Faria pledged to compete at the college level. She first came to the sport by simply following in the footsteps of her big sister, Kayla, who decided to give the sport a shot when she moved to the Bear River area.

As rough around the edges as she was, Faria showed she’s a quick study. She not only dropped her time in the 100-yard freestyle from 1 minute, 54 seconds to a mere 59 seconds by season’s end, she also qualified for the section meet in the frosh/soph division. She swam to 23rd place with a time of 26.86 seconds in the 50 free and took 42nd in the 100 free in 1:00.54.

Her progress earned her Bear River’s Most Improved Award, which inspired her to continue swimming competitively.

“It definitely came naturally. But it definitely took a lot of hard work, too,” Faria said. “I barely made it to high school sections, but I’m glad I did.

“Sections was one of the funnest times I’ve had. Being on a team and traveling with a team is probably one of the funnest things any sport has.”

She continued to improve her times as a sophomore, this time taking 13th at the section meet in the frosh/soph division of the 50 free(26.44), and 14th in the 100 free (59.68). But it was last season’s performance, after joining up with Glasgow in the year-round program, that her times dropped dramatically.

As a junior at the Sac-Joaquin Section championships, Faria swam to fourth place in the varsity division of the 50 free in 24.79 and she took ninth in the 100 free in 54.43.

But perhaps even more impressive, at least on the national scene, last year, she qualified twice for USA Swimming’s Sectional Competition. That’s where the cream of the crop, the top swimmers in the country put their skills to the test. And it’s where

Glasgow told Faria she needed to be in order to follow through with her plans of pursuing a swimming scholarship.

Faria also learned that she needed to take her dedication up to the next level, as well.

With a shorter span to improve her times than swimmers who had been competing for years, her commitment and willingness to be coached were as vital to her success as her skill level.

Glasgow said Faria has had 100 percent attendance for her training sessions ever since she decided her swimming would take a more serious turn. It also hasn’t hurt, Faria said, that Bear River now has its own pool, as opposed to back when Bruin swimmers were traveling to Grass Valley to practice and compete in “home” meets.

“It’s definitely great,” she said last week, sitting poolside after another workout. “It’s just like this is your home, where all your friends and teammates come.

“You’re home. It’s your pool. It feels like you own it, rather than going to someone else’s pool where you’re kind of out of place.”

Faria, who has totaled a 3.6 grade point average and plans to study communications, said she also felt right at home on the San Jose State campus. One of the reasons might be that the Spartans are coached by a Bear River High School graduate in Sage Hopkins.

“Elana Faria looks to be a ‘diamond in the rough,’” Hopkins said in prepared statement, announcing his recruiting class. “She has very limited exposure to the sport, only swimming on a year-round basis for a little over a year. With continued hard work and improvement, Elana will be able to make valuable individual and relay contributions at both dual meets and the conference championship.”

It’s a far cry from her freshman year of high school, when she said Glasgow and fellow coaches Tom Dayton and Taryn Loehr would cover their eyes.

“It had to be frustrating for them,” Faria said. “I really didn’t know how to swim. My coaches would tell you that I was the worst swimmer in the pool.”

But now? Perhaps she’s become proof to other prospective athletes that you never really know how you might do if you don’t take your shot.

“You may not be good at first,” Faria said, “but if you stick with things it can make a difference, with the way you swim or the way you do anything.”

To contact Sports Editor Brian Hamilton, e-mail bhamilton@theunion.com or call 477-4240.