As a young girl, she enjoyed playing with boys much more than the typical things that girls wanted to do. She did not own a single doll, and instead had a closet full of baseball gloves, bats, balls and assorted rackets. She grew up competing with her brothers, and she was happy to compete in the same sports as them. The one area that might have been perceived as being a "female" activity was that of swimming.

Swimming had long been the family sport, with uncles and grandfathers on her father's side all excelling as swimmers. Numerous collegiate and high school champions kept the family name proud, and her great grandfather had actually swum in the Olympics. As with everything else, she took to this sport with a desire to beat her brothers.

The large pool in the backyard served as the arena for their competition. There were not many days were a race was not going between someone, and as Jessica began to grow a little, she found herself giving her brothers some serious competition. At the age of thirteen, her lithe body would soar through the water like an otter.

Swimming was the one arena where she could compete with her brothers, as it was not a sport based on muscle or Braun. They could beat her fairly easily as a young girl, but as she grew her ability increased, as did her ability to compete with her brothers. Although the taunting and jousting still remained, Jessi found that she held an advantage in the pool

She began to compete with a local swim team, and she stood out from the competition. She regularly placed first in all her meets, and she was carrying on the family tradition of swimming in a proud fashion. As her abilities increased, her brother's began to give her a hard time about not carrying on the real family tradition. This tradition was the Polar Bear club.....(cont)