Tony Fonseca doesn’t feel like there’s a good argument against his assertion that the East Providence Boys and Girls Club’s year-round, age 6-17 swim team — The Tidal Waves — are the best competitive sports team in the city.

“I really do believe we’re the best team in the city,” he said. “Show me a team competing in athletics that hasn’t lost in three years.”

Fonseca has coached the Tidal Waves since 2020, and in that time the group has grown not only in its roster (from 20 members in 2020, to 83 this year), but also in prestige.

They won the Rhode Island/Massachusetts (RIMA) League meet championship in 2024 (their first league title in 13 years) and defended their crown in early March of this year, scoring more points than the year prior.

For the past three years, they’ve gone to the Boys and Girls Club National championships, finishing 5th, 5th, and 3rd in the nation against other Boys and Girls Clubs from across the country. They leave for St. Petersburg, Fla. to compete in their fourth-consecutive national championship meet on April 10.

According to Fonseca, they haven’t even so much as lost a local dual meet in three seasons, which run eight months from September to April.

Fonseca’s two daughters, 10-year-old Ambri and 14-year-old Laina, are important parts of the roster, with his youngest also taking on the role of recruiting her friends onto the team, and his eldest excelling as a competitive and accomplished swimmer both for the Tidal Waves and for the East Providence High School team.

It makes sense that the team has experienced such a rapid and consistent rise since Fonseca took over the helm. He swam for Bishop Hendricken and was a former Division 1 swimmer at Notre Dame. Since 2019 he’s coached at the Seekonk Swim and Tennis Club, which has led to a lot of new recruits for the year-round team.

Fonseca said that he appreciates the community that has been built around the Tidal Waves. A fundraiser at his house held to raise money for more kids to be able to take the trip to Florida generated an impressive $15,000. He said 22 kids from East Providence will be attending, and as many as 60 in total from the other local clubs that make up their regional league competing at nationals.

He added that it was rewarding not just to coach his own children, but develop bonds with the other kids, and their families, who join the Tidal Waves.

“In swimming it’s so different. You get the kids multiple times a week and sometimes all year round so you build real relationships with them and their parents,” he said. “So it can’t just be about the sport, it’s about life lessons and hard work and perseverance. I’m lucky to be able to coach my kids and their friends.”