Hewlett swim coaches dive into semi-retirement

“It was alive,” a spirited Scott Strauss, a Hewlett-Woodmere School District parent, said at the trustee meeting on April 20. He was speaking about the Hewlett High School pool where the Hewlett Swim Club for kids between 5 and 16 practices weekly from October to March.

Strauss, who grew up in Hewlett, was commenting on the Hewlett Swim Club to honor Coaches George and Dotty Amitrano who are retiring after 34 years of coaching. When Strauss was growing up, there were less than 20 people on the team. Later on in life, he went with his kids to the pool to find a team of more than 100 boys and girls. “Kids were excited,” he said, “Kids were working hard.”

“She was captain of the girls team, I was captain of the boys team,” George Amitrano said. He and his wife Dotty met at Hewlett High School and graduated together in 1973. They now live in Valley Stream.

George said that although he has a loud voice and may occasionally “scare the crap out of them,” swimmers on the team learn how to be responsible and prioritize their work. Even if it means bringing homework to complete at practice, he added.

Lindsay Shatz, 14, is a Hewlett High School freshman. “I was terrified,” she said, of when she first joined the team. Her mother said that if she wanted to quit, she would have to confront Coach George about it. One fear outweighed another and the breaststroke swimmer has been a member of the Hewlett Swim Club for the last eight years. “Without them I wouldn’t be swimming,” she said. “Swimming has become such a part of me.” 

Dotty reflected on her time as a coach and said: “Sometimes you have a bad day and then there’s one kid that comes up to you and says ‘Coach, I did my best time’ and that’s why we coach.”

“We’re like a family,” Sofia Pesantez, also a freshman at Hewlett High, said. This butterfly swimmer has been a part of the Hewlett Swim Club for nine years. She, too, spoke of being afraid of the coaches at their first practice, but emphasized how it has ultimately been worth it to remain on the team.

Together, the two coaches have three children: Bernadette Johnson, 36; Bridget Zinna, 31; and Bryant Amitrano, 28. “My dad just threw us in the pool,” Johnson said, of how she and her siblings were introduced to swimming at about three years old. “We grew up at the Hewlett pool,” Zinna added.

All three children went on to swim in college: Johnson at Stony Brook for two years, Zinna at Wagner for four years and Bryant at Bryant University where he played lacrosse for four years and swam for one year.

Dotty is the Lynbrook High School girls varsity swim coach. George coaches the Great Neck Froggies and the Valley Stream summer team at Hendrickson Park. The next Hewlett Swim Club coach is Cathy Parris, Dotty’s sister, who also served as assistant coach with George and Dotty. She will be working with coaches Mary Vita and Kelsey Tilin.

The Hewlett Swim Club is part of the Nassau County Municipal Swim Conference Winter League. It is open to Hewlett-Woodmere School District residents. Competitive swimmers on the team are organized by gender and age beginning with 8 and under; 9 and 10; 11 and 12; and 13 and over. The team practices four times a week, Monday through Thursday, between October and March. Meets are often held on weekend mornings.

“They are the most amazing, dedicated coaches,” Alyssa Honig, a parent whose kids have been swimming with the Hewlett Swim Club for about the last seven years said. “They do it from the heart.”