Are you kidding?  What the heck is a “pinch” going to do?   I just got speared by Mike Forgione, landing in a sea of Friars… and reality still hasn’t hit me! 

St. Anthony’s Swimming/Diving Team are numero uno!  That’s right… Undefeated!!

     It was the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, and I couldn’t be happier.  Looking into the eyes of my team I saw a fire that wasn’t going to be put out by the water in the pool at Eisenhower.  Not on February 7^th, 2010.  This was going to be OUR day.  The Saints and the Colts have no idea what intensity is.  Coach Scott said it the best, “We were perfect”!  Every single swimmer on Sunday either held their spot, or did what we were looking for… moved up!  EVERY ONE.  And that is what I call “perfect”. 

   200 Medley Relay 

We swam the 200 Medley Relay on Saturday, almost as a trial run.  The relay had already qualified “in season” (twice to be exact), so we had room to experiment.  Not being seeded first in the 200 free relay opened our eyes to a weakness that could be improved.  Our ace in the hole was going to be Mike Forgione.  We intentionally didn’t declare Forge on Saturday (swim two relays) to see if we could win the 200 Medley without him.  The newly designed relay didn’t disappoint!  Christian Yeager, Bernil Carmichael-Lopes, Chris Cannon, and Bryan Galan not only looked impressive in Saturday's Preliminaries to seed us first… but did WIN the Final event on Sunday with a new St. Anthony’s record, of an All-American Consideration time of 1:37.35!  What’s the best part of that relay besides the 56 points we got?  Not one of them is a senior!  Three tenths off the CHSAA State record… and they’re all coming back!

    200 Free

The 200 Free turned out to be one of our early pleasant surprises.  A big focus was put on both Matt Vacchiano and Mike Graziano.  Both were seeded right on the border of even coming back for finals and we needed those points.  Yes, we put pressure on them, and they handled every bit of it!  All four of our 200 freestylers  gave us top performances.  Michael Graziano, just a year into his swimming career, dropped two seconds on Saturday to make it back, then swam and incredible 159.64 and moved up 3 spots!  Graz gave us the first example that we needed to win, and we just stayed on that roll all day!  Matt Vacchiano was determined to swim well and dropped 6 seconds to his best scoring for us with a 158.75!  John Mitchell had adrenaline to burn.  There were multiple times I actually had to calm him down and sit him on the bleachers to keep him under control.  Muhammad Ali in his prime would have been proud.  Two events in, and Mitch is chanting “Victory”!  He showed us what we needed out of our Friars to win:  A 1:58.00 200 freestyler went a 1:55 at Chaminade, then to a 1:53 at Fordham.  (yes Mitch, we need better… no problem!)  At Trials, he went a 1:52.21, then moves up 3 spots with an incredible 1:51.33 in Finals!  Oh man… we were on a roll!  When I discussed what the coaching staff was looking to do with Sean Sullivan, being that he can swim any event for us, he simply looked at me and said “Whatever it’s going to take for us to win, Coach”.  He’s a talented individual, who is all for TEAM.  Sean moved up a spot with a new St. Anthony’s Team Record of 145.48! 

The 200 IM was a huge event for the Friars.  We had 3 in Finals… and Joey Parisi in the consolation heat!  Joey had the meet of a lifetime.  He couldn’t do wrong.  I was hugging Coach John in celebration of his 2:06 swim when he qualified for the consols on Saturday.  Moving up and going 2:05.41 on Sunday… I was ecstatic with that swim!  With Parisi already scoring big for us, we step into Finals with Black and Gold everywhere.  Monte Jiran was as confident as I’ve seen him in his four year career.  One of the quietest swimmers I’ve ever had, but was the first one to come up to me and enthusiastically say “I’m going to swim GREAT today”!   And he was correct.  Monte’s 6^th place 201.89 IM gave the Friars their 7^th State qualifier!  Kent Bischoff was also a key finalist, as we had to decide in which event he would score higher.  With his State Qualifying 200.57 4^th place finish I believe we chose wisely.  Swimming is a sport of fractions of a second.  Races can be won by 1/100’s of a second, but not with Christian Yeager’s 200 IM.  Christian WON by over 5 seconds.  Total domination of the event!  His 154.63 1^st place finish was the Friars 2^nd event WIN of the day and qualifies for All-American Consideration ! 

50 Free

     Cameron Black was another Friar with an entire breakthrough season.  He became a legitimate consistent scorer for us, and was needed to come up big in the 50 free.  This is a nail biting event with no room for error.  Cameron Black had his best flat start 50 with a 23.92!  Last year Chris Cannon had his best swims in the 50 which landed him in a swim-off just for a place in finals.  Although he swam even faster, he didn’t get that coveted 8^th place spot in Finals.  This year, he made sure there was no swim-off!  Cannon had another personal best 50 free with a 22.55 and yes… in Finals!  Here is where the Friars were really starting to be noticed as a threat to win it all.  Mike Forgione and Bernil Carmichael-Lopes were both standing on the middle blocks.  They started as 1-2… and they finished as 1-2!!  Bernil swam an incredible 21.97 2^nd place finish, and Forge gave the Friars their third 1^st place finish with a blistering 21.85!

   Diving   

     Since acquiring Coach Beth 5 season’s ago, she immediately made the Friar Divers a huge force to be reckoned with.  Although our veteran diver, Megan Skrypek got sidelined with a broken wrist, our remaining four divers moved forward with Megan cheering them all the way.  Our Diving Captain, Jack Volpe took control, and did an incredible job of leading veteran John (Jack) Farren, and our two new divers, Noel Theroux (14^th) and Chris Hidalgo (15^th).  Our divers did so well, that they scored 17 points higher then seeded and actually tied Chaminade at 65 points apiece!  To top off the diving performance that was a pleasure to watch, John Farren medaled with a 7^th place Finals finish, and Jack Volpe broke the St. Anthony’s 11 dive diving record with a 3^rd place finish with 385.85 points!  What’s better then the 65 points the diving team scored?  None of them are seniors!

     “Wake up Connor Hayes… he has to swim”!  That’s right, Hayes came down with mono right before Champs.  Sleeping 15 hours a day and trying to muster up as much energy as he could… the Friars still needed him.  Who else to get the butterfly-ers going but butterfly expert Coach Scott?  When I heard him getting into their heads and the intensity of his speeches… man, I wanted to swim!  I mean, these guys were pumped!  Somehow, Hayes swam a personal best 56.30!  Aidan McShane was as tough as nails.  Although he swam great on Saturday, he just wasn’t satisfied.  With tremendous confidence, he swam a 56.00 for a much needed 11^th place finish!  Chris Cannon was just tenths of a second off the State cut the last three times he swam the 100 fly.  Before he went to swim, I showed him a piece of paper I had in my pocket.  He looked at it, immediately recognizing that it was my list of guys going to states.  Cannon looked at the paper, and then looked at me.  With all the confidence in the world, Cannon said “pencil my name in there now, Coach”.  Whew… I knew this was going to be a great swim.  He swam his personal best AND became our 8^th State Qualifier with a 54.00 7^th place finish!  Bryan Galan was driving me crazy.  The 100 fly couldn’t come fast enough for him.  He was like one of my kids on a road trip… “How much longer”?  “Is it the 100 fly yet”?   After pacing the bleachers, pacing the pool deck, it was time to unleash Galan on Eishenhower.  He ripped up the pool to an awesome 53.60 swim!

    Stephen Brandt was seeded with a season best 53.11.  The coaches have been talking to him about this one swim for two weeks.  Stephen went home on Saturday with a huge smile on his face because he made it back for Sunday with a personal best 52.71.  It was really great to see the support his teammates gave him.  That was it.  Overnight, Brandt became a competitor.  He wasn’t just there to swim… he had a purpose.  I thought he was going to do well when he stated “I’ve never been so ready for a swim”!  Well, he proved that when he blew his heat out of the water, looked up at the clock and threw his arm up in the air in celebration.  He was looking at a 51.91!  The party continued with St. Anthony’s fastest 100 freestyler ever stepping up on the block.  Standing in the middle, with half the heat filled with Fordham and Chaminade, Mike Forgione was ready to make his statement.  Right from the start and out in a 22.65, Forge was out in front and never looked back.  The result, another new St. Anthony’s Record at 47.32 and the Friars 4^th first place finish! 

    500 Free    

     Four Friars await their shot to score in the 500 free.  Bouncing off the walls like Ricochet Rabbit (am I dating myself here?)  John Mitchell was more then ready.  Touching out both Chaminade swimmers with his personal best 507.50 got the entire team on their feet.  Senior Monte Jiran, with a tremendous amount of distance experience, moved up huge dropping his time to a 502.31.  Kent Bischoff struggled to get comfortable in Trials.  Not the case in Finals.  The 2 mile Waves-of-Hope Champion drew upon his distance talent and found his groove in the second half.  Kent’s splits dropped, and so did his time.  Breaking 5 minutes, with a 458.95 gained huge points for the Friars.  Stepping up in the Final heat, and donning the Black and Gold Friar cap, was our top seed Sean Sullivan.  Although he made it look easy, Sean’s splits were amazingly consistent.  As Coach Scott kept reading me the same 28 second split, I kept repeating, “again... again?”  His pace never faltered; in fact it only got better, as all of Eisenhower watched another Friar swim to a first place finish.  Sean’s new St. Anthony’s Record of 443.76 was our fifth first place finish!  (Yeah, I could get used to this!).

     We come to where I believe was the biggest turning point of the meet.  We were seeded behind the favored to win, Fordham Prep relay.  With the use of Chris Cannon in the Medley Relay, we freed up Mike Forgione to make our 200 Free Relay faster.  Faster?  They were lightning!  Forge led us off with a 21.83, followed by Sean Sullivan’s 22.80.  Kent Bischoff’s sprinting was rock solid and he gave us a 22.30.  With our relay and Fordham’s relay just about neck and neck, our anchor Bernil Carmichael-Lopes took off.  Although it was close as they sprinted their first 25 yards, Bernil executed the BEST flip-turn I’ve ever seen and came out a full body length ahead.  The Friars didn’t even wait for the first place finish (our 6^th by the way) the eruption of cheers came from both the team and from the bleachers overhead, where the Friar parents were screaming all day!  I took a moment to take it all in.  My heart was pumping out of my chest.  I told Coach Scott that I couldn’t even slow my heart rate down.  I turned around to see our team marveling over Bernil’s turn, and celebrating the Relay victory.  Forgione, Sullivan, Bischoff, and Bernil yielded another St. Anthony’s record breaking, All-American Consideration time of 128.21!  That was the first time in years that I witnessed the faces of the mighty Fordham team drop.  The Friars are threatening their title!

     As we head into the 100 back, nobody dressed in Black and Gold could sit back down.  We are ready to follow up our relay victory with another of our strongest events.  Mono-man, Connor Hayes, started us off moving up 3 spots with an awesome 100.20 that he would sit and recover from for a full 5 minutes before making it back to our bleacher.  The consolation heat was a convincing full second victory for spark plug Joey Parisi, swimming a 17 point 57.44!  The Final heat was not a huge margin of victory, but what mattered was that the battle turned out to be a Friar victory.  Bryan Galan dropped almost a full second as he powered to a 4^th place 54.17.  That swim was actually his 4^th individual State Qualifying event… the most on the team this season!  I’ll give you one guess as to where Christian Yeager finished in his 100 backstroke.  You see a pattern here, don’t you!  That’s correct… Yeager gave the Friars another Team Record, breaking his brother’s former record time (nice to keep it in the family, isn’t it!) with a 52.94 and our 7^th first place finish! 

     Cameron Black stepped up all weekend.  His first 100 breast accomplishment was dropping over 3 seconds to make it into the consolation heat.  He swam a 108.10 to move up a few spots and get the Friars 11 more points.  Aidan McShane was more then ready for his Finals swim.  Moving up from 8^th to 5^th with his 102.11, he became our 9^th State Qualifier that will be going to Buffalo!  The Friars were grabbing every point they could, and Bernil Carmichael-Lopes once again made it exciting.  As one of the best finishers you’ll ever see, it was the final stretch to the wall that gave him the .04 second margin for the Friars 8^th first place victory!  Bernil’s amazing 59.34 is another St. Anthony’s record as well as an All-American Consideration time!

     For the 1^st time in St. Anthony’s Swimming/Diving history we sit with the CHSAA Championship in site.  There is only one event left to swim.  Coach John pulled our relay swimmers aside, as we now know that all we have to do is finish in the heat.  Starts were to be held “safe”, as raising that Championship plaque over our heads is only a few minutes away.  The Friars knew there was going to be some quality relays, but we were not short of any swimmers.  We had four top sprinters eager to get the job done.  Michael Forgione led us off, and got us our usual early lead.  We kept building from there, as we knew no lead was safe from Holy Trinity’s Jack Wagner.  So we built the best lead we could.  Sean Sullivan stretched it out even further with a 49.04, and Bryan Galan increased our lead by swimming a 49.31.  We now throw it all in the hands of sophomore Christian Yeager.  Although the relay win is not imperative to the Championship, Christian wants to finish in style.  Jack Wagner chased him down for 100 yards.  The result was only a difference of 15/100’s of a second… for the winner… with their incredible 9^th first place finish of the meet, a new Friar 400 Freestyle Relay Record of 314.61! 

    The celebration will be burned into our memories forever.  As our Captains hoisted up our 1^st Championship plaque, the team flooded the pool. sit ... a site I couldn’t wait for our team to experience.  Every member of the team was bestowed a Champion.  Team shirts soaked, arms raised with fingers pointing to the heavens… we are number one!  Whether you were swimming your guts out in this meet, flipping and twisting off a springboard with disciplined acrobatics, cheering with the team in the bleachers, or screaming from the stands… you were a part of this monumental achievement! 

     Special thanks to Brother Gary and Don Buckley for all of their continued support.  To all the parents who never forget to set the alarm clock to 5:00 am.  Our moderator, Dr. Mark Capodanno, who keeps all the loose ends tied tight together.  To Ray Yeager, who keeps our web site the best there is.  My dear friends who coach with me, Coaches Beth, Scott, and John (you guys are the best!).  And to all the alumni of this incredible Friar Swimming and Diving Team;  you will be happy to know that it’s a very special group of athletes who finally achieved the Championship for this wonderful program you help build to what it is today.