The buzzer sounds, they dive in; water rushes past their ears. The Wando girls swim team is full steam ahead on the season’s goals, only this year there is a new leader in charge after former head coach Nicolette Gibbons stepped down at the end of last season. Wando hired Gibbons’ replacement, former Darien Blue Wave head coach Marjorie Trifone, to take over. Trifone left in May after 24 seasons and winning 19 state championships at her home school in Connecticut.
Having outstanding success gave way for a new opportunity and a new chapter for her historic coaching career, so she took the job at Wando.
“I think it helped me make the decision… not only was there a teaching job, but almost more importantly, there was a coaching swimming job, because I’ve been coaching swimming for 37 years, and I kind of can’t really imagine my life without coaching swimming,” Trifone said.
Trifone is confident heading into her new coaching job.
“I think I’m confident in coaching itself, because I’ve done so much of coaching swimming. It’s different in terms of confidence and the system is different here than it was where I came from,” Trifone said. “But coaching is coaching… although the environmental things and the outside things are different, coaching female athletes is just the same.”
Looking to continue the success of Wando’s girls swim program, Coach Trifone is focusing on adjusting to how the South Carolina high school league runs things.
“I think that once I… understand the the way things work here, and understand the teams and the success of different teams and the athletes on those other teams that we compete against, I think that I would just become better a coach. It’s hard to come into a team not know the area very well and how things are run,” Trifone said.
When preparing for a meet, one of the biggest things is dealing with the placement of swimmers. Since she can not put her best swimmers in every event, she has to gameplan the best placement. Trifone does just that to have success.
“I put people in events that are best for the team outcome. It’s not necessarily their best event all the time,” said Trifone. “It’s what’s going to score the best. So for example, regions, I filled all the events, because the best thing to do is to fill the events. Have as many people swim as you can on your team.”
Senior Julia Reed has trust in herself and her team to succeed, and whatever the situation may be, this trust never goes away.
“I trust that [my teammate] will try their hardest… I don’t believe that anyone’s trying to, like, not go fast and… not try their best,” Reed said. “Even if I’m put in an event that I’m not great at… I’m still trying to get the win or get… top three so I can score points for us. I feel like everyone’s trying to do that. So I have a lot of trust in everyone.”
This culture has been an adjustment for her team, but she is happy with her team’s response to the change and believes in their goals this year.
“I think at first they were very apprehensive, because it was a little bit different. And I did start practice a half an hour earlier. We swim five to seven in the morning,” Trifone said. “I also told them that they can swim for their club teams, but they have to be at my practice too. So that’s a hard rigor for them, because it’s five mornings a week, so I think that was hard for them to adjust to, but I also think they did a very good job of it.”
Senior Josie Vollmer is a big part of Wando’s team spirit, as she has a powerful message for the younger swimmers on the team to prepare them for their upper class years.
“I would just say… keep working hard. And like, even when… it gets hard, just like, keep going, because hard work pays off,” Vollmer said. “But also, don’t take it too seriously, because at the end of the day… it is a sport [and] you want to have fun with your team.”
