This year, Moorestown Friends School hired two new swim coaches, Coach Dave and Coach Sue. WordsWorth interviewed two swimmers from the Junior class, Santo Messina ’20 and Alden Burke ’20. Both of them had some very positive things to say about their coaches and the direction the team is moving in.

WordsWorth: What is their coaching style like?

Santo Messina: From what little time we have had to get to know each other, Coach Dave and Coach Sue are both very encouraging, know exactly how to excite us as a team, and unite us to swim as fast as we can. Both of them are very nice and bring lots of experience to the team as they have both been coaching for a long time on the Jersey Wahoos.

Alden Burke: The coaches are definitely better than last year’s. They push us hard every day to be better swimmers. For example, as opposed to last year, these coaches started with the basics rather than getting directly into the advanced techniques from the beginning.

WW: How would you describe a typical practice?

SM: Usually we do a different practice every day, and each practice is planned specifically to focus on different aspects of swimming. Some are geared towards technique, some focus on starts and turns, while others are distance work. Coach Dave has made it very clear to us that he does not want to kill us with tons of yards.

WW: How do this year’s practices compare to last year’s?

AB: Practice was a solid 2/10 last year, but this year I’d give it a 9/10. Last year our coaches had no synergy with one another, leading to some very ineffective practices. However, the coach for the guys this year used to swim for the girls coach, so they already work well together.

SM: This year the practices are much more deliberate and well-planned. Last year they were more random and just used to fill the time slot we had at the Y. As previously stated, the practices focus on a specific thing to work on throughout the sets.

WW: What is your outlook for the future of the team?

SM: I am extremely excited to see how Coaches Dave and Sue build up the team and push everyone to go faster and swim smarter. From what I’ve seen so far, the future of the MFS swim team looks very promising. I know that with their help and guidance, the team will be more unified, faster, and will have a lot more fun.

AB: It’s definitely going to be a bit of challenge since we have less people this year, but it should be fun though because everyone on the guys team is friends outside of swim. On top of all that, our coaches are better this year, so I feel good for the future of our team.

This article originally appeared in print on December 19, 2018.