MARBLEHEAD — Susan Guertin has been fortunate to guide some great teams during her tenure as coach of the swimming and diving team at Marblehead High. But Guertin feels there’s something special about this year’s team that places her Magicians on a higher level.
The Magicians have shown clear commitment and focus from the start of the season.
“We practice Monday morning, Monday afternoon,” Guertin said. “They don’t have to do both they get to choose. Then Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday afternoon. And the kids swimming for club teams have to be in the pool again so they run to their club practice. It’s like living in the water a little bit.
“It’s incredible to see that they can still put that to the side and perform well,” Guertin added. “And they’re all really smart kids. If there’s one thing about swimmers it’s that they do the same thing in the classroom. They’re all top students. They know how to discipline their time.”
The Magicians earned the Northeastern Conference crown with last Thursday’s win over Danvers. They finished the regular season undefeated.
Guertin points to the leadership of her captains as a main reason for the success Marblehead has seen this winter.
“We have five captains, Amanda Wager, Lucas Perez, Julia Cerrutti, Talia Orenstein and Connor Elliott,” Guertin said. “They help fill in the leadership role and help create a lot of the chemistry that this team has with each other.
“I think the key is teaching the kids about the commitment it takes. It’s about making them understand that they have to be at practice. We’re part of a team, part of a group and they’re all real good friends.”
Along with an abundance of veteran leadership, Marblehead has plenty of experienced swimmers who compete for club teams and help their teammates improve.
“The club kids bring everybody up too because they’re really committed between double practices and being in and out of the pool,” Guertin said. “I’ve always been really lucky with the level of commitment I’ve seen. I don’t know how but it’s just been wonderful.”
Some key additions have also carried big roles. Newcomers Nate Pulido, Morgan Taylor and Cooper Caldwell, have helped the Magicians.
“We picked up three boys this year that were good swimmers,” Guertin said. “It brings everybody up. The other kids want to live up to it and it creates healthy competition.
“Copper didn’t swim last year but he came back to swimming and he has been amazing for us. Those three have come in and just been amazing. It just helped us immensely.”
Among the individual highlights this season have been Theo Chemel and Brian Coleman. Coleman broke a pool record at the Lynch/van Otterloo YMCA in the 100-yard butterfly, a record formerly held by Charlie Seltzer (54.19, 2015).
“Both Brian and Theo (200-yard freestyle) have qualified (for states) in their events which is awesome,” Guertin said. “Theo just turns it on and turns it on, it has been amazing. It’s like that no matter what I put him in and he’s very young. He’s only a sophomore.”
Several other Magicians have also qualified for states and sectionals including two divers, Cara Grazado and Carter Murray, swimmers Brooke and Amanda Wager, and a handful of relay teams.
“Both of our divers have qualified for states,” Guertin said. “They just have to get all their dives in because they have to do 11 dives at states.”
Guertin has been pleased with her team’s performances in the pool but said she doesn’t have put any extra expectations on her swimmers going forward.
“There obviously aren’t as many kids who’ll go to the upcoming meets,” Guertin said. “The boys made three relays so they’ll go for that. For the girls, Amanda has made it, Brooke had made it and Talia Orenstein made sectionals so far. I don’t lay down expectations for them, they do it for themselves.
“Now we have another week to put together the conference meet. It really helps to have the (regular season) meets over with. It’s been great this year. We just have some amazing kids. I say this every year.”