New Coach Encourages Swim Team

By Taylor Monje-Rodriguez and Priscilla Rodarte
Staff Writers

Trying to recover from a tough 2009, the swim team starts off the 2010 season with a new coach, Mr. Matthew Nasont.

While attending Bishop Amat as a student, Mr. Nasont was captain of the swim team and continued swimming through his college years.

With his experience and dedication, Mr. Nasont knew he wanted to come back and be a part of the swim team, not expecting to be a coach.

When Ms. Catherine Lima decided to teach IB math courses, she was not able to take on the coaching position, which left an opening to Mr. Nasont.

“When Ms. Lima couldn’t do it, it just worked out perfectly and I took over,” Mr. Nasont said. “I just wanted to be a part of it, but I didn’t expect to be the coach.”

In her third year being on the swim team, junior Christine Magana, like other returning swimmers, had to take some time adjusting to a new coach.

“Mr. Nasont took us awhile to get used to,” Magana said. “He’s a good teacher and wants us to be well rounded swimmers.”

First-time swimmers, like senior Roderick Rocha, are getting used to all the exercising and the experience of being on the swim team.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but so far it’s a lot of work,” said Rocha. “Mr. Nasont is a strict coach, but he’s nice and a pretty fun guy.”

Being a new swim coach, Mr. Nasont has been able to bring his own style of coaching and contribute many changes for the swim team to adapt to.

“I know my style of coaching is different from what the students are used to, along with the exercises we do,” said Mr. Nasont. “I changed the time of when we started getting ready for the season, by starting two months before the season.”

The swimmers not only had to adapt to a new coach but also the different exercise and time changes Mr. Nasont had in store for them.

“We start off with just free style, then do a 200 kickboard and 300 buoys and paddle, and then after we go into different sets and strokes,” said Magana. ”After the first 45 minutes it’s pretty tiring.”

“On my own I go to the gym to get in shape to be ready for our two-hour practices,” said Rocha.

Mr. Nasont also made some changes concerning swimmers and the different events they perform during swim meets.

“The sets are different and he puts people in events that usually don’t swim, but it opens up different opportunities for people who want to try something new,” said Magana.

With new changes, the swim team’s members are given the chance to try new things and turn their performance around.

“I think we have really good individual players, so I think we’ll go pretty far with individual finals,” said Magana.

Mr. Nasont also has high hopes.

“My predictions for this year would be that we will send some of our kids to CIF and it would be really nice if we could do that,” said Mr. Nasont. “And I hope that we could start a dive team, which I already have two guys interested in it.”

Despite all the changes and the rough last year swim too on, the team and Mr. Nasont are enjoying themselves with the fresh start of a new season.

“It’s been a fun experience. The kids are good and they are all excited and want to learn. At the end of the day, they’re proud of how they do,” said Mr. Nasont.