No better testimony to the success of East Hampton's swimming program could be found than at the high school on May 4, when four impressive seniors, all of them swimmers, all of them lifeguards, signed letters of intent to attend colleges that have recruited them for their swim teams.
The program is overseen at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter by, among others, Craig Brierley, the varsity coach, and Tom Cohill, who heads the Hurricanes youth team.
The quartet comprised Bella Tarbet (Washington and Lee), who recently was named as a News 12 Long Island student-athlete of the month; Caroline Brown (Skidmore), the United States Lifesaving Association's female junior lifeguard of the year in 2019; Owen McCormac, who will join his older brother, Ethan, at Marist, leaving two younger brothers, Aidan and Emmet, behind on the swim teams here, and Colin Harrison, who's going to the Florida Institute of Technology.
It's not just swimming with these kids: Tarbet, for instance, wants to study mechanical engineering. Brown said she'll pursue a prelaw course at Skidmore, likely with Latin as a minor. Harrison, who has worked to clean up Sag Harbor's waters through an oyster raise-and-release project, said he's interested in astrophysics and astrobiology. McCormac, a high honor roll student who's taking a number of A.P. courses, might major in finance and economics, "though I'm going to go in with an open mind. Hopefully, I'll make the right decision."
There must be something in the water here.
Moreover, their guidance counselors, Marilyn Marsilio (Tarbet), Samone Ritz (Brown and McCormac), and Lynne Brown (Harrison), were every bit as high on their charges as were their proud parents.
"He's a great student, and the most happy kid I've ever met," Lynne Brown said of Harrison. "He's kind to everyone . . . he's considerate . . . a wonderful, wonderful kid."
Coach Brierley said he had nominated Caroline Brown for the national junior lifeguard award because he had been so impressed by her character, adding that "she's the first and only one I've ever nominated."
As for that morning's mass signing, he said, "It's wonderful for these kids, a big deal for their 18th year."
"Especially considering how their 17th year went," this writer said.
Fintan McCormac said it was nice to think that two of his sons, Owen and Ethan, would be swimming on the same team again after Ethan contracted Covid-19 in this, his sophomore year. "It's a big commitment to swim, it's a lot of work," the elder McCormac, a former collegiate swimmer himself, said, "but Owen can do it -- he's capable."
He added that "Craig hasn't only helped them improve in swimming, he's made them into good young men."
All four McCormacs, because of their age range, have not swum on the same team before, though as many as three of them have. Brierley, in fact, put Owen, Aidan, a junior, and Emmet, a freshman, on the blocks together in some races this past winter.
"Our team did great," said Harrison, who was one of the league champion's captains, "despite the fact our numbers were low and we didn't have much time to practice. I'm very happy with the guys whose hands we're leaving the team in."