Street & Smith's Season Preview: Gators Poised To Win Some Meets

In the 1970s, my brothers and I would eagerly await for Street & Smith's annual baseball edition to be published so we could read about the upcoming season.  In their team-by-team write-ups every team had hope for the upcoming season -- either they had a young pitcher who might surprise, or a grizzled old slugger sure to bounce back from the prior down year.  In springtime, every MLB team had a shot at the playoffs.

Although this isn't a shiny new magazine (Editor's note: If you are young and unsure what exactly a "magazine" was, it was a bound small book that came out periodically -- weekly, monthly, or annually, depending.  It was printed on paper -- google "paper" if you don't recognize the term -- and often had glossy photos.  They are sort of like that catalogs that are the only things that come in snail mail.  Besides home delivery, you could buy magazines at something called a "newsstand."  A "newsstand" was. . .well, enough of this journey into ancient times -- I have to get up, walk over to my TV, and turn the dial to one of the other three channels that I have!) this is the unofficial Street & Smith's 2015 Gator season preview.

(Legal disclaimer written by a non-lawyer: this blog is in NO WAY related to Street & Smith's.  Our writer is either paying homage to his long ago childhood, or is nuts.  Or both.)

MVP is in Division 3 for the third straight season, and the fourth season out of the last five.  The NVSL uses a sorting hat* to rank teams into 17 divisions of six teams each.  The teams in Division 1 are the strongest, while the teams in Division 17 are the weakest.  (Admit it, it would be cooler if the NVSL used Roman numerals for division numbers, like the NFL does for Super Bowl.  We'd be in Division III instead of boring ol' "3".)

Adding to my Geezerhood, for perspective, when our oldest daughter started swimming in Gator A meets in 2000 (magazines still existed back then!), MVP was in Division 13.  That means over the last 15 years, the Gators have not only jumped over approximately 50 teams, but that under the leadership of Coach Paul "the hokiest Hokie" Makin the team has been pretty consistent the last five years (one year in that stretch the Gators went 4-1 in Division 4).

Despite the gutless headline ("poised to win some meets" -- bold prediction that one is!), it's impossible to know before the season how things will play out.  That's why they swim the meets!


This year, the Gators are once again in with Little Rocky Run and Vienna Woods from Division 3 last year.  Those three returnees are joined by last year's sixth place finisher in Division 2, Fairfax Station, as well as the two teams who tied for the Division 4 title, Fairfax and Dunn Loring.

The Gators begin the A Meet season on Saturday, June 20th by hosting the Dunn Loring Dolphins.  The Dolphins went 4-1 in Division 4 and have been a team that the Gators have battled in some great meets over the years.

Week 2 (or Week II as I would prefer), the Fairfax Frogs come to MVP for the second of three home A meets on the season.  The Frogs tied Dunn Loring last season with a 4-1 record to co-win Division 4.  The Gators have a long history of swimming against Fairfax as well.

In Week III, the Gators caravan to a team that I don't ever remember swimming against in the past 15 years -- the Fairfax Station Flyers.  The Flyers (great name for a swim team, terrible name for a hockey team!) finished 0-5 in Division II last season, so they've been moved down in an attempt to rebound.

The road trip continues in Week IV, as the Gators head out nearly to West Virginia (okay, it's Clifton, which only seems closer to West Virginia than to NOVA when you drive it) to swim against Little Rocky Run.  Like MVP, the Stingrays finished 3-2 in division III last season.  MVP won last season's clash by a tight score of 215-205.  The win came courtesy of that usually successful strategy of scoring more points than the other team.  LRR is a beautiful pool, full of fond All-Star Relay memories for grizzled Gator fans.

The Gators return home for Senior Day in the final A Meet of the season to take on Vienna Woods.  The Woods are another team we've had some epic clashes with over the last few years.  Last season, MVP fell to them in a 190-230 loss. The loss was the direct result of not scoring as many points as the other team (now that I've let you know the secret to winning/losing meets, you are officially a swim team insider.  Lucky you.).  Like MVP and LRR, VW finished 3-2 last season.

The big Divisional Meets will find Gators at Dunn Loring for the Relay Carnival on July 8th, and Divisionals will be at Vienna Woods on the 25th of July.  The All-Star Relay Carnival will be at Hung Valley on July 15th.  Individual All-Stars will be at Little Rocky Run to cap off the season on August 1st.

The unofficial Street & Smith's projection for the Gator A Meet season?  Lots of fast swims, some great meets, and a lot of fun for the kids.  If, even after all these years, you think I'm going to make a specific won-loss prediction, you have no idea just how cautious and gutless I am.

(*No actual sorting hat was used in the placement of teams.  I think.)