EAST PROVIDENCE — Things are trending in the right direction for the East Providence High School swimming teams under the direction of second year head coach Bob Hassan, though the Townies are treading water a bit in terms of numbers as they try to navigate the opposition in their new home, Division IV.

The EPHS boys, though posting solid results in recent years in Division III, have only eight competitors on the roster in 2022-23. The girls, who have struggled a bit more lately, have the same total.

“Again, this is a rebuilding year. The numbers are bigger than last year, especially on the girls’ side. I’m excited that we have eight girls on the team. Three came out with no experience whatsoever and they’re already doing well. The future, particularly the girls, is bright with the numbers coming up from the Tidal Waves,” said Hassan, referring the Boys & Girls Club team he also coaches.

Hassan is in his 11th year with the Waves, was a high school school coach previously for nearly a decade at nearby Dighton-Rehoboth and has also coached the Bayside YMCA club teams.

Of both teams, Hassan added, “My thing has always been about working hard, improving with each meet and always trying your best. If you do that, it’s all I can ask for.

“I feel extremely excited about the future of the girls’ team. We have a lot of kids coming up through the Tidal Waves and other area clubs. I’m slightly concerned about the guys’ team. I don’t see many coming up through the ranks. But that’s a trend we’ve been seeing at the youth level for a while now.

“But we’re in the building process. We’re getting notoriety. People are finding out we run a good program. The word is getting out there. We have some experienced swimmers and some brand new swimmers who want to be a part of that. We’re just going to continue to work hard and see where that takes us.”

The boys are coming off a .500 season during D-III dual meets a year ago, posting a 3-3 record. The Townies were fourth in the division championship meet, scoring 269 points. Wheeler won divisions with 384 points.

The girls, meanwhile, are already ahead of last winter’s pace, having won a dual meet after going 0-7 a year ago in D-III. The EPHS girls were last out of eight teams in the division meet with just 85 points.

“The girls have already won a meet, and I’m thinking we could maybe go .500, 3-3, and that would be great consider last year we didn’t win a meet. And we also didn’t score very many points. This year we’re scoring more points and won a meet, so I’m very happy with that,” Hassan said.

Both teams were 1-1 in the early going of the ’22-23 season, following losses to visiting Blackstone Valley Prep Friday afternoon, Jan. 6, at the E.P. Boys & Girls Club in their return to the pool following the Christmas break.

More boys’ notes

The boys had a close meet with Blackstone Valley Prep, which was a bit surprising. I didn’t think we could keep it that close because we didn’t have our full team. Three kids were out with illness,” Hassan said about the Townies’ 40-37 loss last week. “We could have potentially won that meet if everyone was healthy and swam well.”

Senior London Coogan is the boys’ team captain. He swims relays along with the 100 meter butterfly. Junior Nick Capobianco and sophomore Kevin Bettencourt are the top performers on the squad, able to swim all four strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and fly. Junior Ryan Branch, a freestyler, joins the aforementioned trio in relays.

Capobianco was the lone Townie to qualify for states in 2022. He swam the 100 backstroke and the 200 individual medley. Capobianco, Branch and Bettencourt also swam three legs of the 200 free relay to make it to states a year ago.

The four other members of the team — junior Marco Cordeiro, sophomore Gavin Hanley and freshmen Mason Adams and Slate Vandal — are in varying stages of learning strokes.

More girls’ notes

Junior Ines Benedouda leads the returnees to the girls' squad. Last winter, she paced the Townies in the D-III championship meet, swimming fourth in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 IM.

“She’s a great swimmer. She does all the strokes. Whatever we need her in, I can put her there. She works very hard,” Hassan said of Benedouda.

The only member of the team with any real high school experience and its lone senior is captain Emma LeDuc. She swims the free, back and breast. Junior Seleny Arevalo is in her second year and has shown continued improvement as she swims the back and frees.

Maggie Robinson is the team’s only sophomore. She is a two-sport athlete in all three seasons. Besides swim in the winter she runs indoor track. In the fall, Robinson contributed to the EPHS girls’ tennis team that finished as the Division III runner-up and she ran cross country, too.

Hassan said Robinson is doing “extremely well. She’s almost up to the other kids in the free and back. She’s working really hard and with some endurance we’ll put her in the 100 fly.”

Freshman Cassie Dulude is a promising newcomer who learned from Hassan through the Tidal Waves system and can swim all strokes. Hassan said classmate Katherine Skillern is just coming back to the sport, but learned the basics of the sport as a youngster and is showing to be a quick study.

Two other freshmen new to the team are Aalina Amoros and Jayla DeGraca, the former joined the team after learning of it at open house last year as an eighth grader in middle school and the latter because she had a friend on the squad.