Pats earn maiden victory
In just fourth meet, Davies tops Burrillville
LINCOLN – Davies Tech has unveiled four new sports since the start of this school year, including varsity football, wrestling, girls’ volleyball and boys and girls swimming.
According to Athletic Director Bob Morris, sports helps kids develop greater school spirit, cultivates more harmony in the hallways and promotes what it takes to be a good teammate.
Still, head grid coach Henry Cabral hoped – and prayed – his new club would collect at least one triumph last fall, just to kick off the program right, but fell short. The same goes for the other new teams.
But the Patriots’ finwomen, all of seven weeks old, made school history on Wednesday afternoon at CCRI. With only three of their 10 representatives having any previous swimming experience, Davies stunned older, more experienced Burrillville, 52-18.
The Tech boys, though, weren’t as lucky – and for good reason. The Broncos entered the competition a dozen strong, while Davies’ head coach Christiaan Van Zyl only had a pair of swimmers available. The 28-16 result? Call it no great surprise.
When junior captain Savannah Carnevale discovered the Pats had, indeed, captured their first win in the impressive athletic history of the school (mostly in boys’ basketball or girls’ softball), she – in a word – flipped.
“That’s unbelievable,” she exclaimed. “It’s only our first year having a swim team, and we lost our first three meets, but now we won for the first time. We never expected this so soon. It makes us so proud.”
Offered a more calm, serene junior captain Mackenzie Grant: “This is because we’ve been so dedicated since we all first signed up. We’ve put in a lot of hard work since our first practice (Dec. 2), and it’s starting to pay off.”
That tandem came in with previous competitive experience, as Grant swam at Newman YMCA, Carnevale at Smithfield YMCA and senior Gisselle Olguin for the North Providence Barracudas’ youth squad. That experience/ aquatic confidence was obvious while they were racing.
But then the trio was asked why they had to write their individual lists of events on the back of their right hands.
“I forget because we swim multiple meets a week, and there are times I swim different events,” Grant laughed. “I forget sometimes meet to meet.”
She then got serious about discussing a program she swore she helped found.
“I come from a swimming family, and I always wondered why Davies never had a swim team,” she said. “When I heard Mr. Morris was talking about developing a football team, then wrestling and volleyball, I went to him and said, ‘Why do we have every other sport in here and not swimming?’ and he just shrugged.
“But I kept pushing him, and one day he told me, ‘OK, Mackenzie, you’ve got your wish,’” she added. “I couldn’t believe it. I was really excited.”
Interrupted Carnevale: “I was jumping for joy, but I also was nervous because I didn’t know who else would show up, join the team. I didn’t know if we had a lot of experienced swimmers, or if there would only be a few of us.”
That’s when Grant mentioned, “I kind of expected that we wouldn’t have many new kids who knew how to swim, so I thought, ‘OK, we’re going to have to help them.’”
And so she – and they – did. “I thought we could improve if we helped the other kids, teach them how to swim the way we learned how,” Carnevale noted. “We would swim and show them the proper stroke technique, and we saw improvement even during the first practice.”
Van Zyl (pronounced “Fun Sail” in South African) promised it’s been a long road – uh, pool – to hoe, introducing so many “newbies” to the water.
“The kids who had never swum before until that first day, they didn’t even go 400 (yards),” he said. “Most of them couldn’t do a 25 freestyle straight. I had to use a lot of teaching aids like kickboards, pull buoys and noodles to help them (stay buoyant). Once they started to build up their fundamental stroke and the stamina to do a length, then I started pushing them a bit more.
“When it comes to teaching technique, the kids helped, and so did Gail Steere (the CCRI aquatic supervisor) because I don’t have the assistant coach yet,” he continued. “There was such a big disparity between the (experienced and new) groups, I couldn’t split myself constantly. Then no one would get the necessary training in.
“Still, Gail and my wife (Kara) have been huge help. That first day, and practices that first week, we were just doing 25s and 50s, and – for the stronger kids – 100s. My go-to warmup for the competitive kids was a 200 kick, 200 pull, 200 swim, and for the kids still learning, as time went on, I asked them to do the best they could doing six lengths without stopping, kicking, pulling and swimming.
“They would stop every now and then, which was fine because we were still building to that point.”
Even he can’t believe how much both phases of his teams have improved – the old guard and the newbies.
“I built my coaching style around what I learned from my coach when I swam club in Dubai; it’s high-intensity training, not so much tons of distance,” he explained. “For the warmup, I’m sticking to 200 to 400 kick, pull, swim, depending on the day, but then I do a lot of anaerobic work. I’ll have them sprint a 50 from a dive, finish, get back out and right back up on the blocks for another 50.
“We’ll have them do that time after time. It’s the same thing – 50s from a start,” he added. “If I give them a 100 back and a 100 breast, they come right after each other. The reason: Sometimes, when officials combine events, kids will get out of the pool and have maybe a minute to rest before having to get back on the blocks. They may have to swim two events in a row, so your body, your lungs, have to be prepared for that.
“Probably the toughest main set so far (has been) a pyramid (or ladder), where they swim a 25, then a 50, then a 75, 100, 125, 150, 175 and 200 (all from a pushoff). I’ll tell the stronger kids to take 10 seconds rest in between each one, but then you’ve got to leave again.
“I have kids tell me all the time, especially during the hard sets, ‘Coach. I’m going to throw up. I have to get out, but I just say, ‘OK, but make sure you come over here to the (drain) tray, do what you need to do and then get back in the pool and go.’ I have a very aggressive coaching style.”
It looks like they’re all learning that quite quickly.
In the girls clash against Burrillville, Grant captured the 200-yard freestyle (2:27.99) and 100 backstroke (1:16.28), while Carnevale reigned in the 200 individual medley (3:06.09) and 500 freestyle (7:40.52).
Those were the lone double-winners, though Olguin almost pulled off a third. She won the 100 butterfly (1:41.78), but finished second in the 100 breaststroke (1:36.48), just .79 behind Broncos’ senior Nikki Felice (1:35.69).
She happened to win the lone event for BHS, which fell to 0-2 on the season.
That Tech threesome also combined with freshman Kaylie Beland to snag the 200 medley relay (2:47.04), then joined fellow frosh Priscilla Grajales to win the 200 freestyle relay (2:27.56).
The Pats’ “B” relay of junior Valentina Escolar, freshman Adria Labossiere, Beland and ninth-grader Leah Reis added another point with a third behind the Burrillville quartet of junior Sam Mansolf, freshman Audrey Sabin, Felice and junior Angie Allard.
Other individual victors included Beland in the 50 freestyle (44.74) and Grajales in the 100 freestyle (1:55.53, while Beland managed runner-up honors (1:59.59).
On the boys side, despite the defeat, sophomores Jared Scribner and David Lecaros each nailed down two triumphs, as the former took the 50 freestyle (30.19) and 100 backstroke (1:20.84); and the latter the 100 freestyle (1:09.52) and 100 breaststroke (1:37.09).
To be fair, the Broncos would have left the CCRI pool with more points if not for two swimmers being disqualified in that breaststroke race. Then again, the Patriots may have posted more if freshman Jack Ducharme hadn’t bee home battling in illness.
Among the BHS winners: Senior Jordan Stansfield in the 200 freestyle (3:26.28); and junior Zack Gleason in the 500 freestyle (8:30.16). Stansfield also teamed with seniors Desmond Busse and Owen Labrecque and frosh Rene Allard to claim the 200 freestyle relay (2:33.68).
“It’s really cool, having our own swim team,” Lecaros explained after his swims. “Like Mackenzie said, we’ve been working so hard to get faster, both the kids who have swum before and who couldn’t swim a lap. Our practices are 100 percent harder than they were at the beginning. I think Coach was having us test the waters.
“In the beginning, we had to show him how fast we could swim the 50 (freestyle).”
Offered Van Zyl: “When I found out I had three girls and three boys who had swam before, I admit I was relieved; I knew they’d provide the backbone to the program. I (initially) had a list of 40 kids, and I didn’t know where they were (talent-wise). I also knew they wouldn’t all stick around, that some would quit, but the fact I had six who knew what it would take, I was impressed.
“This is our fourth meet, and already we have a winning team,” he added. “Can I believe it? I’m not sure. I thought by this time (in the season) we’d be able to get there; that was my goal, to get here by this meet, but with a first-year team, I admit I came in expecting a winless season.
“The fact we now have a win under our belts, at least on the girls’ side, I’m extremely happy.”