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Competitive Experience

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By CRISTINA LEDRA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2007

TAMPA - The Wiregrass Ranch swim team's beginning was humble, to say the least.

A year ago, Nicole Bracciale started the program with three swimmers.

Eventually, she found out what the Bulls had in store for their second season.

She knew she was getting three outstanding freshman girls with years of competitive swimming experience, and then she unexpectedly received a junior transfer to round out her relays.
Freshmen Kaylin Sylvester, Nicholette Clark and Rebecca Pindral, and junior Fauve Wilson have combined to make Wiregrass Ranch a strong Pasco County program in only its second year.

'Our strength, of course, is swimming, and we try not to focus on our weaknesses,' Pindral said. 'We focus more on the positives and not on the negatives, because those are behind you.'

This season, Sylvester (200 free, 100 back), Clark (50 free, 100 fly, 500 free) and Pindral (100 breast, 200 IM) have the county's top times in seven of eight individual events, all but the 100 free - and with Wilson, the Bulls have the top times in the 200 free relay and 200 medley relay.

They all swim for the Team New Tampa club team out of the New Tampa YMCA, where Wiregrass practices. With the exception of Wilson, who is fairly new to competitive swimming, the rest are seasoned veterans.

In addition to Bracciale, the girls also give a lot of credit to their club coach, Mitzi Tighe.

Sylvester and Pindral have been swimming competitively for nine years, and Clark has been for four, so while the actual sport is nothing new to them, swimming on a high school team is.

'We're used to having several heats, and now we only have one for boys and one for girls,' Clark said. 'The first meet was pretty hectic, but it was definitely a lot of fun to be on a high school swim team.'

The biggest challenge to the girls has come with juggling competitive swimming, whose meets can take several days, with high school swimming, school and trying to squeeze in a social life.

But their background in swimming has made Bracciale's job of coaching a team of 31, many of whom are not as experienced as her three freshman girls, that much easier.

'They know what they're doing,' Bracciale said. 'They come in, they can help the kids that are freshman and have no idea what they're doing, so they've become leaders on our team. We have a lot of great kids on our team.'

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