2018 Outlook For Avalon & Stone Harbor Lifeguard Squads

Erich Wolf & Shane McGrath

Avalon savors the air of consistency while Stone Harbor awaits the feel of a new breeze. From these vantage points, the Seven Mile beach patrols reflect the reality of lifeguard racing.

Most teams fall into the realms of perennial power or rebuilding for this circuit, which pits 15 patrols from Cape May and Atlantic counties against each other from early July into mid-August. The classic singles and doubles rows, and the singles swim, comprise the major events when all squads assemble. Recent additions like the surf-dash and paddleboard races expand the agenda of smaller events.

As another circuit dawns with the Cape May County Championships July 6 in Wildwood Crest, each team represents part of that truth.

Stone Harbor considers the racing lineup a blank canvas. Most of the team will be new. Yet it did observe an eye-opening development during time trials.

“The fastest mile [run] was 4:31 from a first-year guard,” captain Sandy Bosacco says. “We had a good number of times under 5 minutes, and these are people who we have not even trained yet. These times came from people who also ran through the sand after they swam in the ocean, which was cold, and they had to turn around halfway through.”

In pure running terms, the times are really about 15 seconds faster. The recruits give Stone Harbor a strong rookie class as it performs the ritual of most patrols: rebuilding, excelling with the wave of fresh talent, and then surrendering that talent to lifestyle enhancements of career-building and family development.

“You’re happy for the kids and what they are accomplishing,” says Avalon captain Murray Wolf, who lost doubles-rowing stalwart Jake Enright to the Navy SEALs program this year. “You’re proud of them, and in Jake’s case I know he will do well wherever he goes. Still, you have to put someone in that spot.”

For Avalon, there is a luxury of repetition. Wolf can pencil in two major strength areas: singles and doubles rowing, via his sons Erich and Matt. Combined, they have more than four decades on the patrol (and still two decades fewer than their father, as captain) and have helped the team capture numerous competitions. Yet for Matt Wolf, who coaches track, wrestling and football at Middle Township High School, a major wrinkle impacts his 21st season: Enright was his partner for five years.

“Whomever I team with, it will be interesting to decide where each of us sits,” he says. “Jake was bigger, he was in the bow, he had been rowing crew and helped me better my technique. I am not a real big guy to be sitting in the bow, so we’ll see how that goes. One thing that’s always interesting is two people coming together and learning how to row a straight course together.”

On the ocean, that’s a priceless commodity. Wolf and Enright, whom he’d coached as a high-school football player, became as compatible as a quarterback and wide receiver. How quickly this new team comes together will help determine Avalon’s success in this area.

“We have a lot of boats,” Matt Wolf says. “There is tremendous competition just inside of Avalon to represent the patrol.”

Erich Wolf brings a solid presence to the singles row. The 20-year veteran accomplished an impressive feat last summer, seizing a second South Jerseys title six years after capturing his first. It was a testament to durability for Wolf, 32, in an event often dominated by college athletes. One must defeat 14 other competitors, avoid random pitfalls like a bad early wave and then power through. Success requires a conditioning edge forged by offseason work.

Avalon Beach Patrol’s Ryan Black prepares a lifeboat for competition.

Erich Wolf wired the field last year. After coaching baseball at the Atlantic County Institute of Technology, he gears up to return. Aug. 10, the date of the South Jerseys competition in Longport, is circled on his calendar.

“I train all year for this and you figure to peak one time of the year,” he says, “and that is the second week of August. Everything I do is to get in the best possible shape for the South Jerseys. The key is to go real hard at it in the early part of the summer and maybe taper off just a bit before the big race. I’m excited about doing this again.”

Erich Wolf has been the patrol’s ironman. He often competed in singles and doubles competition on the same night, practically carrying the team during some career stints. Besides the two individual championships, he won in a breathtaking photo finish to give Avalon its coveted team title in 2015.

With the Wolf brothers as anchors, Avalon looks to gain a strong doubles partner and a swimmer from its new crop of potential guards.

While the Wolf tandem provides a prominent impact, some other old pros remain strong. Craig Whitehead enters his 30th year for this patrol. Besides winning three consecutive South Jersey doubles titles with Mike Cras in the early 1990s, he is a fixture in the Upper Township Six-Mile Bay Race, which will be held July 23. Whitehead has competed in it for about 25 years and has won it with partner Shane McGrath.

“If you see the office I am at in Philadelphia [as a physical-education teacher], then you see the view here, it does not compare,” Whitehead laughs. “It is wonderful to come back here, get back into exceptional shape every year, and you can do that mostly on the job. Where else can you really do that? It is a privilege to be here this long.”

Whitehead savors his unique link to the Bay Race, in which he is believed to have competed more than anyone. The event has raised approximately $150,000 to combat multiple sclerosis over the years.

“It is the best of everything,” he says. “When you can compete in an event like that and help other people while you are enjoying the friendship of fellow guards, it’s hard to think of anything better.”

Stone Harbor’s New Look

When the patrol started work Memorial Day weekend, guarding bathers on its 2½ miles of beaches, it sported 20 new aluminum stands. Those units replaced the wooden ones used for decades. Stands are virtually maintenance-free and will last from 10 to 20 years, Bosacco says. The new ones are about 50 pounds lighter than the old ones. They also have handles that make them easier to move.

“They are a little wider and more manageable,” he adds. “You don’t have to paint them. You don’t have to fix them.”

And, there’s the pride of unveiling something new.

As for the athletes, Stone Harbor has ridden both the rebuilding and veteran-team waves over the years. It had a strong squad during its centennial season, 2012, later attracted blue-chip performers like

Villanova standout swimmer Hayley Ed-wards, and has performed well in some of the newer competitions like the surf dash.

In this campaign, Bosacco anticipates the journey of new recruits.

Final Lap

In addition to the Cape May County Championships on July 6, other major races this season are the July 13 Beschen-Callahan event in North Wildwood, the July 20 Atlantic City Lifeguard Classic, the July 27 Dutch Hoffmans in Wildwood, and the July 29 David Kerr Memorials in Avalon.