Quotes by John Casadia

“It went really well. Each of our swimmers averaged 13,000 meters a practice and we had near-perfect attendance.”

“We have some real deep holes this year, thats for sure. East had a great recruiting year; Cherry Hill West got stronger; Washington Township is stronger. We dont have the depth we have had (during the state championship runs). The challenge is to have everybody step up and do the best that they can do.”

“(Middle-lane swimmers) definitely are not going to be enough this year, not against Cherry Hill East or West.”

“We did a lot of race-pace swimming. It was far more intense than in the past.”

“A lot of the teams have gotten stronger. Our diving has been a little down and that has hurt us in a few meets, but were working to improve that. At least four teams (that are on Vinelands schedule) have really improved. Washington Township has 14 new kids, Cherry Hill West and Cherry Hill East are strong, and Eastern is always a competitive team. They all have good coaches who know how to plan lineups, so its going to be a challenge.”

“I thought the key was everybody pulling together and swimming their hearts out.”

“We expect to swim a lot faster. Were going to have to swim a lot faster.”

“We lost something like 44 points from last year. We replaced it with like five points from incoming freshman. That means the returning swimmers really turned it up. But it doesnt make it any less disappointing.”

“Im not leaving coaching. The grind of high school coaching is enormous. Coaching state championship teams is not all that its cracked up to be sometimes. I never really got used to making decisions that not everybody was going to be happy with.”