Sea Kings seeking upgrade

Rick Devereux

Matt Flesher may be a first-year head coach, but the 24-year-old is

already familiar with members of his Corona del Mar High boys swim

team.

Flesher was an assistant for the boys water polo team that

finished 20-9.

“I know these guys,” Flesher said of the swim team. “They are a

great bunch of kids.”

Flesher will be looking to have the same kind of turnaround season

in boys swimming as the water polo team enjoyed.

One CdM swimmer, Bryan Buhagiar in the 100-yard backstroke,

qualified for the CIF Southern Section Division II championships at

Belmont Plaza in Long Beach last year.

The water polo team went from 8-19 in 2003 to the CIF Division I

semifinals last fall.

Flesher is expecting Buhagiar, a junior, as well as other

returners to help guide the turnaround.

“I’m not sure what guys are what strokes, but the core guys are

Buhagiar, [senior] Tom Money, [junior] Kyle Hersh and [junior] Jacob

Murphy,” Flesher said. “Those are guys I’m sure will be swimming in

[the CIF championships]. I’m counting on them to be the leaders of

the team.”

The water polo background naturally leads to high expectations in

the freestyle sprints.

Money, Murphy and Hersh are all expected to compete in the 100 and

200 freestyle events with freshman Chris Cottrell also figuring into

the mix. That foursome is also being considered for the 200 and 400

free relay teams.

“We have a very good sprint team,” Flesher said. “But a water polo

coach wants you to get from point A to point B as fast as you can, no

matter how you do it. In swimming, it’s all about the mechanics. All

of the little things are important when you’re talking about a

fraction of a second.”

While it seems the freestyle events will carry CdM, Flesher said

it will be the intangibles that may lift the Sea Kings from a

fourth-place finish in the five-team Pacific Coast League a year ago

to elite status on par with the girls program that was the CIF

Division II champion last year and runner-up the year before.

“Our strength is our camaraderie,” Flesher said. “There is a very

good team element on the pool deck. All of the guys are friends and

push each other in workouts.”

Even more than winning times, Flesher said he is interested in

seeing the swimmers progressively improve.

“I like to see these guys work hard because I’m a big fan of being

competitive,” he said. “Track and field and swimming are unique in

that you are racing against yourself and the clock. It is truly an

environment where you get out what you put into it.”

While Flesher admits he doesn’t know how the team performed last

year, he is aware of the history of Corona del Mar aquatics.

“I know this is a great community with great facilities and the

guys are excited about training and swimming,” he said. “I know there

is a very good tradition at CdM. But I also know the last couple of

years, swimming was not taken seriously. I am looking to instill into

the program the notion that this is a varsity sport. This isn’t

recreational swimming at the local YMCA.”