Swim team prepares for new season
BY STEVE SHEPPARD
With the graduation of several key swimmers from both the boys' and girls'teams, coach Jim Pignato looks to replace several positions this year.

"It's a rebuilding year," Pignato said, noting the departure of co-captains Kaitlyn Ellis and Rachael Schneider and three other senior girls. "To fill those roles this year will be difficult."

On the boys'side, graduation brought the loss of captain Tucker Harvey, Jason Sibley-Liddle, Bill Spencer and diving phenom Nick Valero, who finished fifth overall in the state finals last year, capping a memorable high school career. "He had this focus about him when he was diving," Pignato noted.

With the first practices taking place Monday, Pignato, beginning his fourth year as varsity swim coach, knows it will be hard to match last year's boys' record of 8-1 and second place overall finish in the Bay Colony Conference. New co-captains Harrison O'Rourke and Will Martin Jr. will anchor a team that will feature promising newcomers, including distance freestyle swimmer Hunter Burnham.

On the girls' side, captain Ainsley Ellis, who finished seventh in the 50- yard freestyle and eighth in the 100-yard freestyle at the states last year, is one of nine returners who hopes to build on last year's 4-3 record. One who Pignato thinks will help fill the gap is diver Justine Paradis, who returns to the island after a year away at private school.

With two weeks to go before the first official meet, a Dec. 9 relay carnival at New Bedford, Pignato has some time to figure out reconfigurations for both teams.

"I'm looking forward to the beginning of the season," he said.

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