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09/13/2017 12:00 AMJen Amasino has made a career of building strong programs and tight-knit communities on the local swimming circuit. This fall, Jen is ready to make her mark in another shoreline town as the head coach for the Guilford girls’ swimming and diving team, which recently began its inaugural campaign.
Jen, a Guilford resident who teaches physical education at Daniel Hand High School in Madison, swam for East Haven before graduating in 1995, after which she competed at Southern Connecticut State University and then came back to her hometown to coach the Yellowjackets.
After being hired by Hand as a teacher in 1999, Jen began coaching the Tigers’ girls’ swim team—guiding them to runner-up finishes at the SCC and Class M State championships in 2004—and was also a key catalyst in helping Hand’s boys’ squad make its initial splash.
Jen wound up coaching at Hand for 10 years and, more recently, she contributed to the movement to start up a girls’ swimming team at Guilford. Jen, who also coaches swimmers aged eight to 18 at the Soundview YMCA in Branford, is seeing those dreams realized this year as she’s now the head coach of the Indians, who hit the water for their first meet in program history last week.
“The team at Hand grew into a great team, so I’m hoping to do the same here at Guilford. Many of us in the town have been working relentlessly to try and start this program,” Jen says. “Myself, along with other Guilford parents, kept going to board meetings to get our point across about having a team there. We got our dream to come true. There are a lot of parents in the community that deserve credit, too. We have about 20 kids right now, and we are trying to start building a tradition of excellence. We are heading in the right direction, and it’s rewarding to see it come together.”
Swimming is an individual sport by nature, and so Jen wants to make sure that each one of her swimmers sets her own personal benchmark for success. However, Jen also knows that the sum of all the parts is what ultimately leads any team to victory.
“As a swimmer, you are doing a relentless amount of laps two hours a day for a 30- or 40-second race. Training can be daunting on them, so it can be tough to stay motivated for them, so the biggest thing to me is to ask them to give their best effort,” says Jen. “It’s also about them setting personal goals—short and long term. Having daily success makes them want to come back for more. We have a major diversity of backgrounds on the team with those that want to be a State Open champion and others that haven’t found their niche. It’s very much a team here, so goal-setting is huge. You want everyone to feel that success and, when it happens, it’s great for the team.”
Student-athletes often gain confidence from achieving those goals, and Jen feels that strong self-belief serves as a key building block for swimmers as they strive toward their finish line. Jen adds that succeeding in sports can also help people achieve great things later in life.
“It’s great to see the confidence swimming builds in them. It’s about helping them overcome an obstacle in the sport and watch them reach their goals,” she says. “If every kid can walk out of the pool with a smile and give their all, then I know I’m contributing to their confidence. I know when I was younger, swimming helped build my confidence. Sports teaches you how to work through things and face obstacles head-on. To watch the kids and see them become proud of themselves, that is why I coach.”
Guilford’s assistant coach, Linda Lepeak, says that a first-year organization like the Indians couldn’t have picked a better leader than Jen, considering her welcoming nature and passion for the pool.
“Jen’s knowledge of swimming is bar-none one of the best in the state of Connecticut. She has a tremendous depth of knowledge of the sport based on technique, training, and the organization of a team. She has a good rapport with her student-athletes and shows them great care, consideration, and respect. She is energetic, dynamic, and wants anyone who shows any interest in the sport to come out and give it a try,” says Lepeak. “Every day, we get more and more girls who want to swim. It has been and incredible experience so far. The girls are super excited, ready to train, and, most importantly, working very hard. For all but four or five swimmers, this is their first time on a swim team. Jen and I feel all the girls will have a wonderful impact on our program this year and many years to come. Our motto is, ‘Guilford Girls’ Swimming: Building a Tradition One Stroke at a Time.’”
Jen feels beyond honored to be the first torchbearer for a program that many people in Guilford worked hard at getting off the ground. Now looking to life in the water, Jen isn’t too worried about where Guilford will place in the postseason this year; instead, she’s more focused on the Indians gaining strength in numbers.
“To get this position as a head coach, I don’t have the words to describe my enthusiasm. To not only help this team come to be, but also be the leader to take the team to the next level, it’s like the cherry on top,” Jen says. “We are focusing on building the program in terms of numbers. The biggest thing is to let people know they can be a part of this when they reach high school. Wins and losses this year aren’t on our agenda. We have talented swimmers here, and the goal is also to have the girls feel awesome coming out of the pool, because then they’ll tell their friends about it, and maybe they’ll join.”