Kenneth Berreman stared down his opponent during the wrestling match. They were both around the same size, under 140 pounds, but the senior from Justin Siena had three years and a lot more experience over the freshman from Redwood.

Despite that advantage, when the match ended it was Berreman, the varsity-level rookie, who took the win.

“He was just pissed,” Berreman said, remembering the incident from his freshman year. “I was scared to shake his hand at the end, because he looked like he was about to deck me.”

Berreman is part of an elite group of three-sport athletes, those that have played a sport every season, every year of high school. Out of those 12 seasons, the tall, athletic senior played on the varsity level for 10 of them.

Sports hadn’t always come easy for him, though. Berreman started swimming in fourth grade, but hadn’t ever played water polo or wrestling until high school.

“It’s funny, because I started out as a chubby little kid. I wasn’t athletic at all; I didn’t play any sports except for rec soccer, which I wasn’t very good at, and then I started swimming. I wasn’t even really good at that until seventh grade when I became decent. Then I came to high school and started sports and they became a huge part of my life.”

Berreman started his high school career by playing water polo, which he considered a natural extension of his experience as a swimmer.

“I think I just started [water polo] because I swam, and it made sense because I wanted to do a sport in the fall.”

Admittedly, he said it was probably his worst sport, and he was on JV through his freshman and sophomore year. After the fall season ended, he soon discovered what was his best sport—wrestling.

“I wasn’t originally going to do wrestling, but I had friends, some guys from Boy Scouts, who were doing it as well, so I just tried it and I really enjoyed it,” Berreman said.

Wrestling seemed to be a good fit for him, as he took home several victories in his debut year. Additionally, it offered a challenge that Berreman was able to rise to even more than in his other sports.

“Swimming is a little harder to stay motivated for. You burn out more easily, at least I did. Water polo was by far the most fun, even though I wasn’t as good and didn’t receive as much playing time. Wrestling was kind of like the golden combination where I was good enough to do well, and I really enjoyed it,” Berreman said. “It was really hard though, I had six tournaments in a row this year, which meant there were six weekends in a row where I just sat there in a dark gym all day.”

Time commitments like those consumed Berreman’s schedule, and put a strain on other aspects of his life.

“It was hard. I definitely didn’t spend as much time as others socializing or going out with friends as I could have if I didn’t do so much,” he said. “My grades definitely suffered, especially this year.”

It would be hard to notice though, as Berreman managed to keep things together.

“I did well though in most of my classes, despite those constant conflicts. It was also hard finishing up my eagle rank in Boy Scouts. I had kind of dropped out of scouting for a little bit, but I came back to finish it off.”

Those schedule conflicts are sure to subside in the future, as this is the end of the line for Berreman’s sporting career. Now that swimming and wrestling are both over, he’s not planning on continuing in the future when he goes off to UC Davis this fall.

“Davis doesn’t have a men’s swimming or wrestling team, and water polo is insanely hard there and I wouldn’t make it. I think I’m going to play club water polo, because that’s the [sport] that’s the most fun and the most relaxed, I feel, out of the three I’ve done.”

However, that doesn’t mean that he’s slacked off in his other sports. Of all his four years of varsity wrestling, his senior year was his best.

“The highlight has definitely been the wrestling season this year. I took second at one tournament, fourth at the Mission San Jose tournament, which is really hard and attracts some of the best guys in the state, and I took sixth in NCS and won MCAL.”

But even when the memories of the details of the wrestling season fade away, the part of all his four years and 12 seasons of sports that Berreman will keep with him is the camaraderie he formed.

“A lot of my friends I’ve met through sports, and some of these guys I’m really close with because you get really close since you spend so much time with them, especially after four years,” Berreman said.