Photo by me, Darren Cooper
River Dell/Westwood senior swimmer Julian Smith hands over the famed purple speedo to junior Conor McCorry at Tuesday night’s swim banquet at Seasons. McCorry becomes the 10th owner of the speedo.
Ten years. Time sure flies. And you know what, things just get better and better.
I had the honor of being invited to the annual River Dell/Westwood swim banquet last night at Seasons. I also crashed the Northern Highlands swim banquet going on downstairs and gave a quick speech (I hope I made some sense). I even took the Varsity Wife with me, and you want to know something? She’s been with me before and when I asked her if she wanted to come, she was down. It’s always fun. The food is excellent (I had a half-dozen ribs) and hey, I have 3 kids, it’s like a night out for us. That’s kind of cool. I did miss Vic Egg, but Chris Armen and his wife Mary Jo are awesome company.
They even let me introduce Julian Smith before the Purple Speedo presentation. Boy, that was a mistake. I’m going to want to do that every year from now on.
The Purple Speedo does not go to the best swimmer on the River Dell/Westwood swim team. It is totally kid picked, meaning, last night it was Smith’s turn to pass it down. His choice alone. It means nothing. It means everything. It’s fun. It’s serious. I just think it’s pitch perfect. The kids laugh when it’s passed out, but trust me, they all want to know who is going to win it.
Julian was wearing a baby blue jacket, which I pointed out to the crowd, because I admire anybody who wears a colorful suit jacket (black and navy blue are boring). In my brief speech I said how in my own failed HS career I didn’t remember much – ok, maybe one tennis match with an epic tiebreaker, and some football games – but I more remembered the people, my coaches and my friends.
And while Chris Armen has yet to win a state championship – maybe one day – the kids would more remember that he’s just a good person. Encouraging, accountable, close with his family. Multiple times when he was introducing kids on his team he was like, “I dont know what it will be like without this person,” and the feeling was genuine. And his fun side fosters this type of environment where the kids can have their own little thing like the Purple Speedo. Not every coach would be willing to give up this control.
Then I challenged the girls on the River Dell/Westwood team. Listen, it’s been 10 years and the boys have had all this fun, you mean to tell me there isn’t a pink dragsuit, or swim cap that the girls can’t pass down? I think that might be cool.
The Purple Speedo tradition has been going on for 10 years. The original owner was Brian Friedlander, one of the best swimmers from one of the best swimming families in North Jersey. I said this last year, but one year, just have to have a Purple Speedo reunion (Or, Brian, I know you’ll read this eventually, you should make a video that they could play at the banquet explaining the back story, since they already have the screen up for the season highlight film).
Brian passed it down to Matt Skroce who passed it to Nishant Patel (Patel is the best story, since he was at New Milford and then the co-op changed from River Dell/New Milford to River Dell/Weswtood, so he wasn’t on the team any more, Nishant made sure it got passed down at the banquet anyway), then it went to Timmy Arakelian, one of my personal favorites of all-time. From Tim it went to Ryan McDonough, to Brendan O’Connell, to RJ Olski to Steve Akdemir to Julian Smith.
And so last night, after my intro, Julian took out the speedo. He said he had been thinking about 2 different kids all year, but hadn’t made up his mind until that morning. He said he’d never seen a kid change lanes during a swim meet before like Conor McCorry did (laughter) and he was honored to present the speedo to Conor.
So at my table, I turned to Armen and was like, “Change lanes?” And Chris said yes, during the Livingston state meet Conor got a little mixed up on a flip turn/backstroke and accidentally switched lanes. You know, I covered swimming for a long time and I never heard of such a story too. Conor was DQ’d of course.
The night rolled on. The River Dell/Westwood girls finished 7-5, losing a 2-point heartbreaker in the states. The boys beat Hackensack in the states 88-82, Armen’s first win in states with his boys team, and he called it one of the best days ever in his coaching career. Hackensack had beaten RDW in the regular season, but they tweaked the line-up and just had everything work – even sweeping the backstroke to win. The boys finished 4-9. Pretty good, since I know just a couple of years ago, they were winless.
Then came the team awards….
Captains Awards – Daniela Zambrano and Tommy Damato
Coaches Awards – Delaney DeTitta and Aidan Vella
High Point – Julia Lombardi and Conrad Hoody
Katie Conway Award – Lauren Fox
Sportsmanship Award – Sophia Scholes and Alec Balasny
Achievement – Larissa Lamarca and Conrad Hoody
Most Valuable Swimmer – Julia Lombardi and Kyle Balasny
The Kaufmann Award – Connor Olski
The Armen Award – Asher Konigsberg
It’s been 10 years of the Purple Speedo now. 11 years for Armen as head coach. It never gets old. It only gets better.