Scarsdale Girls Dive In for a Successful Season

When people in Scarsdale talk about the high school's athletics, the Varsity Girls Swim Team is not always the first team that comes to mind. This year, however, the girls are ready to step into the Scarsdale limelight.

Last season, Coaches Barney Foltman and Tim Callahan graciously allowed over forty ­five girls to swim for the team. However, practices were difficult, as lane space was limited and, since there is no swimming pool at the high school, the bus that took the team to and from the Westchester Community College pool was often cramped. While creating lineups for the meets, Coach Foltman and Coach Callahan did their best to make sure that everyone could swim at least once, but that couldn't always happen.

Scottie Berridge works on her breaststroke

This year will be different. There are only thirty­nine girls on the team, so everyone should be able to swim at every meet, and more than once. The bus will be less crowded, and thus far there have been no complaints of cramped lanes. More importantly, the new swimmers as well as spirited captains Nicole Katchis, Rebecca Kearns, Catherine Scarcella, and Trisha Pabby are predicted to lead the team to new heights.

"Last year, we are about five and five, but we lost some good swimmers along with one very good swimmer who didn't come out for the team this year," Coach Foltman recently confided. "My hope is that we can get to five hundred, if not a little bit better and be competitive in the league. We have some new talent that's come in that should really help us: Sydney Vleck, Sabine Con, Merritt Shelton, and Natalie Isick to name a few. So I think that we should be able to get some depth. Right now we are trying to put in some yardage, and we are going to get a little more concerned with speed as we start to progress closer to the competitive season. But right now, we are just trying to fine­tune all our skills."

Friday, August 29 marked the beginning of the season. The girls wrapped up their two­week preseason with time trials, in which swimmers dive off blocks and swim a given event as fast as possible. The girls are excited to swim in their first meet on Friday, September 12 against Pelham at the Westchester Community College pool. The girls were not able to beat Pelham in their meet against them last season. But they are sure that this year, the tides will change.

Coach Callahan, reflecting on the determination the girls have shown since the first day of preseason, remarks: "As a team overall, I think we are extremely well­balanced this year. I see a lot of girls that are going to help us out in a lot of different events, namely the A, B, and C relays. I think our goal for the season is to finish higher in our division and higher in the section than we did last year."