Changing of the Guard: Avalon Beach Patrol’s Emerging Leadership Contrasts with Stone Harbor’s Voices of Experience
David Giulian (stern) helps to launch Avalon’s doubles boat with Gary Nagle to a first-place finish in the David Kerr Memorial Championships.
Avalon considers the impact of a torch passing, while Stone Harbor basks in tradition. Those perspectives marked the Seven Mile beach patrols as the new season began in July.
Here’s an overview of each unit.
Avalon
You remember Matt Wolf, Jake Enright, and Erich Wolf leading Avalon to its last South Jerseys title in 2015.
Well, eight years pushes people into new places. Matt Wolf became patrol chief and Erich put immediate competition on hold to pursue a doctorate in education. Enright went on to a career in the Navy.
That competitive nucleus is gone.
The emerging group includes David Giulian and Gary Nagle, who won the doubles for Avalon at the season-opening Cape May County Championships. And look at Ryan Finnegan, winning the singles row.
Time will tell if this group can match its predecessors. But, as a kicker, it is joined by a major swimming presence in Dolan Grisbaum, the returning South Jerseys champion. He will be showcased in the July 21 Kerr Memorials hosted by Avalon, and the Aug. 11 South Jerseys.
Avalon has a strong starting point. It also has Brandon Hontz gaining seasoning on the swim circuit.
The team got off to a good start, winning the Cape May County championships on a tiebreaker with Sea Isle City.
Matt Wolf was philosophical about its impact.
“We were very happy to win it and we enjoyed it for a few hours,” he says, “but the next morning, I told these guys how quickly they need to move on to the next thing.”
On the racing circuit, Avalon maintains two major goals: winning the Kerrs and the South Jerseys.
The Kerrs are named for Dave Kerr, who died in 1980. Avalon has dominated the memorial event named for one of its own.
“My father Murray comes in every year and talks to the guards about what the Kerrs mean to us,” Matt Wolf says of the patrol’s longtime captain and chief, who retired two years ago. “Dave Kerr to me was the quintessential lifeguard and his story to me is almost like an Abraham Lincoln, a George Washington, or a Martin Luther King to the United States of America. The legacy has lasted long after his presence.”
Kerr, a 1980 South Jerseys champion, died of cancer at 28 in 1981.
The Memorials also bear the imprint of the late Brett Fitzpatrick, for whom an event is named. He was a surf-dash champion for the Avalon patrol. Wolf says Fitzpatrick also will be recognized with his name placed on the T-shirts. This is the 10th year he has been honored.
The Kerrs feature many events, encouraging widespread participation by the patrol.
The South Jerseys, by contrast, has a limited scope. Three classic races, the singles and doubles row, and the swim comprise the events that determine the team title.
Avalon has a major wild card in Grisbaum. He authored a season for the ages last summer, sweeping every event he participated in. Grisbaum became Avalon’s first swim champion since 1989 and anchored a team that finished a strong third to eventual champion Margate.
Avalon joined Margate as the only patrols to place in all three events last year. Erich Wolf, Nagle, and Giulian produced two fifth-place finishes for Avalon in the respective singles and doubles rows, and they were only a couple of boat lengths away from winning.
Expectations for them have gone up. A couple of boat lengths is an improvement most rowers can envision for themselves.
The impact of a swimming stalwart elevates that analysis. A Grisbaum victory and a rowing upgrade would put Avalon right in the hunt for a team title.
The Avalon women also are engaged in fierce competition to represent the patrol. Lieutenant Danielle Smith, Gabbi Eppright, Regan McDonnell, Molly McDonnell, Sarah Powell and Olivia Coffey jockey for the doubles and singles rowing position.
Katie Scanlon had the early edge in swim competitions.
Stone Harbor
Two elements inject excitement into the Stone Harbor Patrol this year. One is the patrol’s brand-new headquarters. The second is the stability created by veteran leadership.
Dennis Bakey teams with Tom Lake to form the leading doubles rowing partnership.
Bakey has been on the patrol for 27 years. Lake has the rare privilege of a second tour of duty. He spent a couple of decades in a commercial career before returning to a job he loves.
“Most of the guards will stay between two and five years before moving on in their life,” Stone Harbor Captain Sandy Bosacco says of a process by which guards compete during their high-school and college years before the professional world calls them away.
“The exceptions usually are teachers, who can compete during the summer without giving up their full-time job. In any case, however, success in lifeguard competition requires extraordinary dedication.
“The young guards are able to learn a lot from Dennis and Tom about the discipline and commitment connected with their training and with their jobs here. Dennis and Tom set a good example for them.”
As the impact of Bakey and Lake works through the patrol, the organization enjoys its first full season of the new headquarters.
“We have about 90 employees and it’s been a big help to have the ability to train people in the building,” Bosacco notes. “We have a physical fitness area, ample storage for equipment, a place to train the guards in CPR and first aid, adequate bathroom facilities, and improved visibility regarding the beaches. We couldn’t even see the beach from the old building.
“The beaches are a high priority to the shore communities and we appreciate the support the town has shown us.”
Bosacco enters a milestone campaign. This is his 40th season and he also serves as president of the South Jersey Lifeguard Chiefs Association, comprising the 15 patrols that make up the South Jersey lifeguard racing circuit.
