A Season of Hard Work and Reward

Outmanned, but undeterred.

Among others, this is a phrase that could be used to describe this year’s Teaneck High School Boys’ Swim Team. Starting the season with only 14 swimmers, and then losing one of their seniors, albeit for a good reason (more on that later), the team has shown spirit and grit, that along with some strategic line-ups constructed by Coaches Matt Green and Joanna Ebert, has led to a respectable 8-7 dual meet record, and a 3rd place finish in their League Championship meet.

An honest assessment of the season is that the boys haven’t lost to any team that they shouldn’t have, made some of the meets more competitive than they could have been, and pulled out maybe one or two meets where, on paper, it looked like they would lose. High school swimming is one of those sports where there can be vast gaps in talent based on how many team members are also club swimmers (those that participate, outside of high school, and usually year-round, on a competitive team), and Teaneck has only one club swimmer on their team this year, Leo Fricker, a Freshman. The rest of the team consists of:

• Seniors, Alex Wind, Jason Highet (Captain), Jordan Ramos, and Daniel Walcott;
• Juniors, Jon Achar, Armando De Sequeira, Liam Elhadad, and Ethan Piney;
• Sophomores, Michael D’Onofrio, Raymond Dundon, Yamil Gomez, and Jeremy Odei; and
• Freshmen, Dan Maron.

This group of young men have improved dramatically over the course of the season, and achieved many of the goals that they set before the season commenced. As Coach Green summarized:

“I couldn’t be prouder of this group of swimmers. Our success is based on how well each swimmer executes their role in each race. Only one swimmer can win the race, but every swimmer plays a part in the team winning the meet. These young men excelled at meeting and exceeding my expectations for them. Their hard work in practice paid off in their performance and ultimately led to our winning season.”

Throughout the season, these young men have scraped and scratched, swam events that were not their specialties (backstrokers swimming butterfly, sprinters swimming distance, etc.), and took an extra point or two wherever they could (a 5th place instead of 6th, a 4th instead of a fifth, and a 3rd place relay finish when the other team didn’t have a second relay team). Whatever it took, they fought for it, and as a result ended the season with a winning record, delivered a 200th career victory to Coach Green, and have memories to laugh about and share.

One of those memories will be of their rivalry meet against Hackensack, which they won, and which marked Coach Green’s 200th victory, and was also Dan Walcott’s last meet with the team. Dan had been an Ironman each of his first three years on the team (Ironman is one of Coach Green’s awards for those swimmers that, in a season, make it to every practice, every meet, and every other team event), and had also been an accomplished shot-putter on the track team. In a selfless act, Coach Green told Dan to pursue the Teaneck High School shot put record with the indoor track team, whose season coincides with the swim season, and in doing so taught by example some of the dimensions of sports that transcend pure athletics – selflessness, empathy, camaraderie, and what it truly means to be a team.

Going out on a high note, the boys defeated Harrison High School in their final meet of the season, and thereby delivered a winning season to their Coaches.