Harrington: Saving the Swim Team
Sophomore Bridget Baker dives off the starting block.
The BSM swim team is up, running and swimming today and that’s all thanks to Director of Marketing and Communication Devin Harrington, a 2005 alum, who “saved” the team back in 2004. When there was Benilde High School and St. Margaret’s Academy, there was a boys’ and girls’ swim team.
When the two schools merged, the administration decided to see which sports could work for the school. There was not enough interest to keep the boys’ swim team, so the school dropped the team.
When Harrington arrived in 2001, there were some members of the girls’ swim team who had brothers that swam outside of school. Parents who had sons that swam wanted a boys’ swim team. “
There was some interest growing and we talked to Mr. Jerry Pettinger for a few years, and finally there was enough interest,
— Mr. Devin Harrington
Now that there could be a team, the team needed a coach. Girls’ coach Damon Carrison, who had been the girls’ coach for a couple years, said that he would also coach the boys’ team. Carrison became the director of both boys’ and girls’ swimming at BSM. The swim team has been around now for about 13 seasons. “The fact that there has still been enough interest to keep the boys’ team going for that long is pretty successful,” Harrington said.
Some other private schools like DeLaSalle and Holy Angels have to combine a team with another school. In 2017, BSM had their first ever State Champ with then-senior Tyler Metz winning the 100-meter freestyle and becoming the runner-up in the 200-meter freestyle.
Coach Carrison still is the BSM swim coach today. “The fact that the coach is the same coach from when I was here––he’s been here for 15 years now that shows that people love him, and it’s nice to see that that’s continuing on,” Harrington said.
