PHOTOS: Flyers Swim & Dive Opens Season on Road

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FRAMINGHAM – The Framingham High girls swim & dive team opens its 2022 season on the road against Acton-Boxborough High School on Thursday, September 8 at 4:15 p.m.

But technically, the Flyers are on the road all season, with the closure of their home pool at Keefe Technical High School.

Keefe announced earlier this year the pool needs $5 million worth of repairs and for safety it would not open for the 2022-23 season.

That left many swim & dive teams in MetroWest scrambling for pool space, including Framingham High.

The good news is that the girls swim & dive team at Framingham High secured practice space and even meet space at neighboring Wayland.

It helps that the Framingham High girls coach Mike Foley is the coach for Wayland High’s winter co-ed swim team.

Foley is a legend in swimming in MetroWest having coached the Flyers girls team to 13 consecutive Bay State Conference titles and several Flyers state champion swimmers and divers over the past two decades.

And Foley has been coaching in Wayland since 2000, having won more than 500 meets with that program.

In total between Framingham & Wayland, Foley has more than 700 victories, making him the most winningest swimming coach in Massachusetts history.

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“We will be utilizing Wayland Community Pool all season for practices and meets. Not much will change for us as we were fortunate to still get practice time immediately after school. We don’t have as much practice and need to rethink how we can get our weekly dryland/kickboxing sessions in,” said Foley.

“We’ve never had a pool of our own at FHS, so this really doesn’t feel too much different. While Keefe has been our home, we always had to bus or carpool to get there for meets or practices so nothing has changed from our lens with regard to all of that. As long as we have water to swim in and a diving board to launch ourselves off of, we are going to work hard, improve and have some fun,” said Coach Foley.

The team has 23 swimmers & divers this season.

“This is the smallest team I have coached in over 20 years of being here,” said Coach Foley.

One reason is the loss of the feeder system. There has not been a Framingham Frogs (City Parks & Recreation) summer swim team since 2019.

“Not having the summer Frogs for three seasons has definitely hurt our numbers,” said Coach Foley.

The Flyers have three divers and 20 swimmers on the team.

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There are 17 girls returning to the team, with 6 new members to the squad.

The girls swim & dive team has 6 seniors, but also 5 returning sectional qualifiers and 2 returning state qualifiers, said Coach Foley.

The six seniors are Emma Angelo, Bella Bowen, Katya Connell, Celeste Gonzalez, Meaghan May, and Katya Scaria.

Angelo is a returning sectional qualifier. She “will be the leader of our sprint crew this year. Four year team member and letter winner each season, who had a great season last year after missing our Covid Fall II season from knee surgery,” said Coach Foley.

Angelo “is a veteran relay swimmer who will bring needed experience to our quest in qualifying all three relays for postseason. The whole package of leadership and work ethic,” said the head coach.

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May is another “4-year team member who has found her niche as a distance swimmer for us recently. She will be asked to fill in needed depth due to graduation recently.”

Foley described May as a hard worker everyday at practice, who prepared herself well over the summer.

Scaria “has focused mostly on backstroke over the years but will be asked to fill in other roles with the smaller team numbers this year,” said head coach Foley. He said she has a “strong work ethic at practice each day.”

Bowen has “really branched out and improved over the last couple years,” said Foley.

Bowen focuses on breaststroke but her IM and freestyle have come a long way, said the head coach.

“She has been varsity letter winner each season on the team and devotes herself incredibly to the team. She is eyeing her first postseason qualifying times this year and with her leadership she will help guide others to be there with her when it happens,” said Foley.

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This is Gonzalez’ third year on the team.

Her freestyle has improved over the last first two seasons and she has become incredibly stronger, said Coach Foley.

“She is  a needed leader in her lanes at practice for the underclassmen and demonstrating how to keep a practice moving,” said Coach Foley.

Connell is a 4-year team member.

She is another “breaststroker for us who has improved tremendously over her years on the team,” said Coach Foley. “Quiet, but takes charge of her lanes and teammates at practice to demonstrate who things day to day at the pool. She will add to our freestyle sprinting as well throughout the season.”

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