Sports
Lynbrook Swim Team has Championship Season
Village squad wins two first place trophies over the summer, preps for entry into Division 1.
The Lynbrook Swim Team, a summer league that swims out of the village pool, had a championship season this summer.
The team swam in Division 2 out of four divisions this year. The team won Division 2 with a 4-1 record. Then they took the division championship — a meeting of six local swim teams at once — with the best record for an end of season division meet. The team was awarded two first place trophies.
"We won the championship meet by two points against our longtime rivals, the Manorhaven Pool, on the North Shore" said Head Coach Peter Ninivaggi. "To win by two points is extremely rare and extremely close."
Ninivaggi said the team's perseverance paid off.
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"I'm very proud of the team this year," he said. "We fought back. We lost our first meet by two points and we were missing a lot of people. That drove us and made us hungrier. I've never had a team work harder. The work ethic is the best I've had in nine years of coaching. They worked for it and they got what they deserved."
The team started in 2002 and has had a strong history. The team placed first in Division 4 in their first year, and first in Division 3 in '05 and '06. This is the first year the team won in Division 2, quite an accomplishment, but Ninivaggi is already looking ahead.
"Now we get to move up to Division 1 the upper echelon of the county," he said.
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The team was made up of 105 members, both boys and girls, ages six through 16.
What's unique about the sport of swimming is everyone is welcome on the team, even those children who might have minimal ability at first.
Assistant Coach David Ostermann can attest to that. He recalled his own experiences on Ninivaggi's team at age 11.
"When I first joined I was the worst on the team," said Ostermann, now 18. "Pete stuck with me. Who would have thought that seven years later I'd be assistant coach?"
The Lynbrook Swim Team is looking for more swimmers as they prepare for the move into Division 1. The summer team will be competing with teams that swim all year round.
"Remember we are a small pool in a small town," Ninivaggi said. "We are beating larger towns with larger pools."
The team will begin practice in late May 2011. For more information or to register, call the recreation center at 599-8000 or e-mail Lynbrookswimteam@yahoo.com.
