Longtime boys swim team leader credits athletes for all the championships
LINWOOD — True to form, before a ceremony to honor his upcoming retirement from teaching and as head coach of the Mainland Regional High School boys swim team, Brian Booth deflected credit for five state championships, 12 South Jersey sectional titles and nine Cape-Atlantic League crowns.
“I credit that to the kids that have been here, not me,” Booth said Friday afternoon before his team’s final regular season meet against Haddon Township. “They’re the ones that put the work in and do it.
“And I was blessed for those four years in a row to have some of the best kids in the state swimming, all right here. So I give them the credit more than I would ever give myself credit,” Booth said, referring to the state titles the Mustangs won from 2016 through 2019. (His team also won states in 2003.)
Athletic Director Billy Kern, during a mid-meet presentation, pointed out a few more of Booth’s credentials during 29 years as head coach beginning in 1997. Booth, who turns 55 this week, is a 1989 MRHS graduate and 1993 graduate of West Chester University. He became an assistant swim coach in 1993.
Booth, Kern pointed out, had a career record of 315 wins and 71 losses, not counting Friday’s victory over Haddon Township. His swimmers earned 24 individual state titles, set 10 national records and received All-American recognition 28 times.
With the Mustangs as the No. 1 seed in the South Jersey Group B sectional, which his team has won the past three years, Booth isn’t quite done. His retirement is official at the end of the school year but he will be leaving in March, aiming to spend time helping take care of his father, who has dementia.
Booth said one of his best memories will be the 2003 team that provided his first state title with swimmers who provided the early foundation of the Mustangs’ continuing success.
“We kind of came out of nowhere and we won a state title. It kind of really started setting in motion what we could do in the future. And really since then, we’ve had a great run,” Booth said. “We’ve not won every year, obviously, but I’d like to think that we’re always in the conversation of teams that people say, ‘Hey, if we’re going to do anything, we’ve got to get by Mainland.’
“That’s been my goal, to try and make us a very competitive team in South Jersey that people respect and have a little bit of fear when they say they have to go against Mainland.”
He also named a slew of swimmers in those initial years — Matt McGroarty, John Altobelli, Steve Scibal, Chris Calvi — whom he considers building blocks, while adding there were so many more later that he could mention, such as Brian McGroarty, Destin Lasco, Glenn Lasco, Joey Rogers, Brett Claus and Nick DiNofrio.
One of the biggest highlights, he said, was coaching his son, Skylar.
Asked what made it the right time to retire, Booth said, “I’m ready. It’s just one of those things. I’ve been here, this is my 32nd year, going on 33rd year. And as much fun as I’ve had, I’m ready for another step and to see what happens in the future.
“I’ll miss it, obviously, but I’m always going to be around,” he said.
Kern told the swimmers and parents assembled around the pool Friday that Booth is going to leave a void in coaching and where he teaches in the physical education department.
“I am confident he has reached the ultimate coaching goal, leaving a program better than he found it,” Kern said, also recognizing Booth’s wife, Tara Booth, and their children, Skylar, Ryleigh and Sydney.
Kern said Booth’s accomplishments speak not only to talent, “but to the daily standard of excellence that Coach Booth demanded and modeled. He added the statistics are “incredible,” but “what they truly represent are countless conversations. Hard practices. Quiet encouragement. Tough love. And tons of math. As well as an unwavering belief in his athletes, even when they didn’t yet believe in themselves.”
Later, on a personal note, the athletic director, himself a 2003 MRHS grad and former athlete, talked about the friendship he has had with Booth over the years and how he had coached him as well when he was a student.
“I think it’s full circle for me to have played freshman football for Coach Booth many years ago, then coach alongside him, spend many, many lunches and many days with him, to see his career continue to just improve, improve, improve, and our program get better and the success that he’s had,” Kern said. “As the athletic director now, I’m so proud of him and so proud of what he’s built here. He deserves every accolade that comes his way.”
He said it will be something finding Booth’s replacement.
“It’s going to be an interesting process to find someone not to fill his shoes, because that shouldn’t be the goal, but to keep building on the foundation that Coach Booth has put in place here because it’s certainly strong and it’s definitely a blueprint to be followed.”
“It’s bittersweet,” Kern said. “It’s really hard to replace not just good coaches, but genuinely good people, genuinely good teachers that care about kids.
“He’s fantastic and it’s extra special because he is so close to me as a family friend. I have so much respect for him and Tara and their children,” he added. “I’m proud of him, but it’ll be sad … when he walks out of here for the last time.”
The Mustangs beat Haddon Township handily in Friday’s meet for Booth’s 316th win and will be swimming in the South Jersey Group B sectional semifinals, mostly likely against No. 2 Ocean City or No. 3 Shawnee, at home Feb. 9. The South Jersey finals are Feb. 11 at Gloucester County Institute of Technology.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
