Needham High School swimmers get a campus presence: A new record board

Swimming has a low profile at Needham High School, despite its strong teams. The swimmers do their grinding hours of laps at the Babson College pool 3 miles from their campus – and that’s where they have their home meet moments of glory, too.

“Nobody has ever stumbled upon a swim meet the way they can [other sports matches] at Memorial Field,” says girls’ Coach Rachel Waldstein.

But visibility of swimming and diving just took a major stroke forward at Needham High: Coach Waldstein unveiled a swimming and diving record board May 29 just outside the A gym. “Swimming can now have a physical presence at the high school,” she said at the gathering of about 80 current, future, and former swimmers, coaches, and parents. 

The nearly-floor-to-ceiling-size board lists boys’ and girls’ Bay State Conference and school records: Needham girls hold more conference records than any other team – in 5 out of 13 events; and the boys have one conference record. The span of years – 1985 to 2013 – shows how strong NHS swimming and diving has been and continues to be, Coach Waldstein says.

A 2004 graduate of NHS who swam all four years on the team, Coach Waldstein spearheaded fundraising for the record board. In her first season as head coach last fall, she organized the team’s Million Yard Challenge Swim in which the girls earned more than $4,000 in donations.

The crowd at the unveiling included Dave McGuire, who coached the boys’ team for 25 years in the 1970s through the ’90s and who has been officiating at high school meets for 21 years. He reminisced about some of the elite record-setters he knew on the record board, but he also pointed out that the no-cut sport is a great opportunity for kids who don’t have much swimming experience.

He noted that the current boys’ coach, Adam Cole, came out for the NHS team as a freshman in 1995 with no competitive swimming background at all. “He was the hardest working swimmer I ever had,” said McGuire.

And, noted Coach Cole, who recently raced in the icy waters between Alcatraz Island and San Francisco: “[Coach McGuire] told me I’d never swim butterfly, but I worked for four years and [went on to swim] four years at a Division III school [Williams College].” 

The record board, both coaches suggest, may similarly inspire others to make swimming their lifelong sport, too.