Maddie Navicky diving off block. / Courtesy photo
After wrapping up her high school swimming career, Maddie Navicky is trying to leave a lasting impact on a soon-to-be program.
Maddie Navicky’s high school swimming career is over.
Navicky, a senior captain on the Middleboro/Whitman-Hanson co-op girls’ high school swimming/diving team, had an impressive tenure. She’s a three-time South Shore League All-Star, two-time team MVP and is on the Middleboro all-team top 10 list in three events. It’s a list that dates back to 1981, but didn’t start to feature W-H swimmers until eight years ago when the two schools formed a co-op. Navicky loved the co-op aspect of the sport.
“I love the fact that I got to make a lot of new friends and the team all pushes each other to do our best,” she said.
A two-year W-H captain, Navicky was tasked with helping the younger swimmers fit in.
“I love being a captain,” Navicky said. “I think it’s so cool I get to be a person the team can look up to and go to for help. Because I’m the only Whitman-Hanson captain, I also help the underclassmen become friends with some of the Middleboro kids.”
But this is the last year of the co-op, with the two schools going in separate ways.
“It is sad that they are not having the co-op,” said Middleboro head coach Everett Clark. “Maddie [has] truly been a pleasure to coach.”
Clark isn’t the only one upset to see the co-op come to an end.
“A lot of the other swimmers are extremely disappointed in the fact that they’re not going to be together,” Navicky explained. “If I was still swimming, I would be sad too.”
W-H will be forming its own program that will likely swim out of Massasoit Community College. And while Navicky’s time in the pool is up, she’s doing everything she can to help.
She’s compiled a check list of the items the program will need to get started, created timer sheets, scoring sheets and has designed practice sets based on what she learned during swim camps and college visits.
“I have also been talking to a lot of my friends and I have been getting other current swimmers to try and talk to their friends to get people to swim next year,” Navicky said. “I want the program to succeed.”