New Boys’ Swim Coach Looking To Build Team Roster

When former coach Ray Beaulac left as the boys’ swim coach at Branford last year to pursue his professional career in medical prosthetics the co-athletic directors, Sav Synodi and Jake Palluzzi, posted the position and went to work to find a replacement.

Enter Jennifer Amasino. ​“We were very lucky to find Jenn,” said Palluzzi. ​“She had a wealth of experience as a swimmer, aquatic director, assistant coach, and head coach and she was a great fit for our program.”

Amasino was graduated from East Haven High School in 1995 where she was a member of the swim team and attended SCSU, earning both a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and a master’s degree in Health Education while earning All New England honors as a member of the Owls swim team.

She returned to East Haven to become the girls’ head coach in 1998 and then moved to Daniel Hand High School in Madison to become head coach of the girls’ swim team from 2002 to 2008. She also had stints at Hopkins, the Soundview YMCA, and the Guilford Racquet and Swim Club.

She became the Hand boys’ swim coach in 1999 and the Guilford girls’ coach last September. In Connecticut the high school girls swim in the fall and the boys swim in the winter. 

Branford is a co-op team with Guilford. They have a small roster but Amasino has goals to increase the number of swimmers on the team. ​“I believe if the boys enjoy the experience they will tell their friends and they will want to come out for the team as well.”

Her actions at the recent tri-meet covered by the Eagle between Branford-Guilford, Hand, and the Lyman Hall-Coginchaug Co-op team showed a lot of interaction and spirit between the new coach and her team members. .Here Coach gives Matthew Daley some pointers after he finished his race.

“I’ll talk to a swimmer between heats about their race and give him my advice how they can perform better,” said the coach. ​“I’m just trying to get them to improve,” she said.

In the tri-meet last week, Branford-Guilford defeated Lyman Hall-Coginchaug, 116 – 67, but lost to Hand, 96 – 82. Highlights for the home team included wins over both teams by sophomore Aiden Henry (pictured) in the 200 Free (1:49.45) and 500 Free (4:54.74).

He was joined by freshman David Zhang who finished first against Lyman Hall in the 100 Back Stroke and 1 Meter diver Emanuel Acevedo who came in first versus Lyman Hall-Coginchaug and second against Hand with a score of 148.85. Zhang won the 100 Back Stroke with a time of 1:07.39.

Here is Acevedo concentrating hard.

Other performances, which earned points for the B‑G team, included junior Matthew Daley (pictured), who came in second against both teams in the 100 Breast. Daley finished third in the 100 Fly against Lyman Hall-Coginchaug.

Ryan Andrews (pictured) came in third in the 100 Back Stroke.

Here two of the three judges show their scores in the diving event.

The teams shake hands after the competition ends.

Next up are the SCC Swim Championships on Feb. 28 at SCSU.

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