Marc Primelo is the kind of guy that every team needs - someone who is competitive, knows how to rally the troops and yet keeps things a little loose. Primelo can often be found leading his team prior to meets by donning a towel as a cape and doing his best Julius Ceasar impression. But when he gets in the pool, it's all business.

"I try to help the team any way that I can. I know that everybody works hard and gives their best and I just try to support them, because it's not always easy," said Primelo of his role on the team.

With his senior season winding down, Primelo believes that both he and his team are ready to challenge in districts. Senior Night is this Thursday when the Whitehall Zephyrs come to Emmaus to compete and then the swim team wraps up its regular season next Tuesday with a trip to take on a tough North Penn squad.

"Everyone is doing as well as they can and I think we're going to have a great taper on both the guys and girls sides," said Primelo of the upcoming period when swimmers cut their workload prior to a big meet. The theory is that the swimmers can draw off of the higher intensity workouts that they've done during the season to give themselves a bit of a rest heading into a big meet.

Primelo gets his work done in the pool, having missed just one practice all season, which was out of his control. Away from the pool, Primelo looks to have fun and recently got his competitive juices flowing by taking part in the Mr. Emmaus competition. That annual event is for senior boys who compete in a sort of beauty pageant. For Primelo, the talent competition allowed him to show off his newly found skills on the Kora - an African harp - and don his one-piece swimsuit that he wore as a much younger swimmer.

"It was a lot of fun and I got a lot of support from the swim team," said Primelo. "I bought the Kora a few months ago and I taught myself how to play. I've always been enamored by the instrument."

Primelo and teammate Greg Ritchie, who has released his own music CD, have played together and plan on recording together in the future. In fact, Ritchie helped to record a number of guitar demos that Primelo used to apply to colleges.

As for that swimsuit, the Mr. Emmaus competition rules stated that the contestant's stomach had to be covered, so Primelo pulled out his one-piece swim suit from when he was 11 or 12.

"Back then they were legal, so I wore that to cover my stomach. It was really tight, but it still fit," laughed Primelo.

Coach Tim O'Connor has been impressed with Primelo's work ethic and how he has approached his senior season.

"His best event is the breaststroke," O'Connor said. "Carter Paules is a notch ahead of Primelo right now, but Marc doesn't back down. Every practice, he takes that as an opportunity to race against one of the best breaststrokers around and his performance is starting to show that it's paying off."

O'Connor saw both his boys and girls teams battle against a tough Liberty team. The boys came away with a 130-53 win, while the girls tied Liberty at 93-93. The boys' victory kept them undefeated in the Lehigh Valley Conference at 9-0 and put them at 11-2 overall. The girls are 6-2-1 in the LVC and 6-6-1 overall.

"I've been challenging our team for the last couple weeks. There are only so many meets left before I have to make the lineup for districts and actions speak louder than words," said O'Connor. "I'm trying to encourage our kids who may have taken a bit of a back seat in year-round training, because other programs, like Liberty, have gotten their kids into working harder and they're challenging us."