The Bayside YMCA Stingrays have won six consecutive Southern New England YMCA Swim Championships.

And the Barrington High School girls swim team has captured eight consecutive state championships.

The combined number of championships won by the Stingrays and the Eagles isn’t a coincidence because the Stingrays are a “feeder” program for coach Sandy Gorham’s teams.

“Without a doubt,” co-head coach Jen Baker replied when asked about the Stingrays being a feeder program. “Last year about 90 percent of the high school swimmers were Stingrays. In the past only two or three girls didn’t swim for the Stingrays.”

Not surprisingly the Stingrays coaches are in constant contact with Gorham.

“We see him daily and go to the banquets because our daughters swim for him,” co-head coach Ray Baker (i.e. Jen’s husband) said. “He talks about the kids who’ve come up through the Bayside Y.

“We have a great working relationship.”

The Stingrays were founded 34 years ago but the Bakers have been coaching them for the last 12.

“We have four daughters and we wanted them to get involved with the swim team,” Ray Baker said. “The team didn’t seem to be very competitive. It just happened to be an opportunity where the coach was leaving and they reached out to us because they knew we are swimmers.

“We were asked ‘Can you give us one year of coaching?’ We ended up doing that year and 11 more."

Ironically, Ray Baker was on the Eagles boys swim team (which is coached by Gorham) from 1986 to 1990. He was a member of the BHS boys swim team that won a state championship in 1989 — the last time, prior to this year’s team, to win a boys title.

The Stingrays are comprised of boys and girls who range in age from five through 20. 

Currently, 160 youngsters are involved with the Stingrays, the vast majority of whom reside in Barrington and attend or have attended Barrington High School.

“About 90 percent of our 15-and-overs attend Barrington High so that’s at least 30 kids (i.e. currently),” Jen Baker said.

Winning six consecutive Southern New England YMCA championships against teams from Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts isn’t something that’s happened because of luck.

“I think a lot of that we attribute to the kids themselves,” Ray Baker said. “They are the ones who work hard in practice.

“We also have a great support staff. We think our assistant coaches are some of the best around. Some are our former Bayside swimmers.”

The list includes Nathan Cherau, Lisa Mangione, Albert Garcia (a Master swimmer), Marta Matzko, Liz Welch (as Master swimmer, Bryan Tran and Kaan Duru (a Master swimmer).

Due in large part to the work put in by the Stingrays and their coaches over the past six years, several have qualified for nationals.

“We’ve had some relays qualify for nationals,” Ray Baker said. “Two years ago we had eight qualify – two male and two female relay teams.”

More recent national qualifiers include Ethan O’Connor (who’s currently at Bowdoin), Aidan Lane (who’s currently at Dennison), Yanis Benadouda (who’s currently at St. Peter’s), Juliana Goncalves (who’s currently at Providence College) and Rachel Baker.

There’s more.

All-State swimmers who have swam or are currently swimming for the Stingrays include Zoe Webster, Kristen Baker, Rachel Baker, Garin Stone, Andrew Barton, O’Connor, Lane, Melanie Baker and Julia Zuker.

Absorb all of the above and it’s a fair indication of the caliber of swimmers developed by the Stingrays.

“I really put it back on the kids,” Ray Baker said. “We’re there to give them the tools but they’re the ones who do the work.

“They don’t get enough credit for their individual successes because people don’t know how hard they push themselves to be successful in these meets. And I don’t think the kids would have these opportunities if it weren’t for the YMCA, especially Aquatics Director Laurie Pansa.”

Fortunately the Bakers have the same philosophy when it comes to coaching the Stingrays.

“Between Jen and me we have the same philosophy regarding what we want to achieve,” Ray Baker said. “It’s a lot of drill work including getting the stroke technique down correctly. As far as we’re concerned it’s the stroke technique and getting the foundation down.”

Jen Baker zeroes in on a key part of the philosophy that’s made the Stingrays so successful.

“We really try not to burn out these kids,” she said. “A lot of times we see kids get to high school and they’re done swimming. They’ve been swimming since they were eight and because they’ve done so much (swimming) yardage they’re burnt out.”

But what works for one age group doesn’t necessarily work for another.

“We have age-appropriate practices for eight-and-unders – 45-minute practices,” Ray Baker said. “As they get older and stronger the practices increase and become harder.”