GUAMBO

The 'Riverdale Guambo' is the Riverdale Country School Swim Team. The team was created in 1961, originally called the Riverdale Indians. Throughout its history, the Riverdale Swim Team has won a combined 11 New York Prep School League Swimming Championships. The Riverdale Guambo has been an important institution in the Riverdale Athletic community as well as the New York High School swimming community in general, having a long history of producing great swimmers and making the sport enjoyable for spectators, opponents, and especially the Guambos themselves. The coach of the Guambo since 1993 has been Brian Carver.

Contents

Training

Championship Wins

Coaches

Pool

Team Spirit

Origins of the Name

Walking Past The Banner

Captains

Mnuched!

Trivia

Training

The Riverdale Guambo swim competitively from November until February, with practices extending an additional two weeks for swimmers competing in larger scale competitions like the Easterns High School Swimming Championship. Pre-season practices begin in September. Swimmers also volunteer one week of their winter vacation to participate in a team training trip in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to prepare for the second half of the season.
The Guambo accept all applying swimmers (without try-outs) attending Riverdale from Freshman year up to Senior year. In cases when a Middle Schooler is very talented, or the team is in need of additional swimmers to fill spots in events, Eighth graders are moved up to the Varsity level. Seventh graders are often not moved up from the Middle School level unless they are extremely talented. Sixth graders are allowed to train with the team, but not compete even at the Middle School level. The Middle School team practices two times a week, but Coach Carver plans to accelerate their program next year, possibly extending practices to three times a week. Varsity swimmers practice every day, with practices available either early in the morning or after school. Long Varsity practices are also held on Saturdays.

Championship Wins

Since the creation of the team, Riverdale has won 1 co-ed New York High School Swimming Championship, 4 Women's New York High School Swimming Championships, and 6 Men's New York High School Swimming Championships. The Ivy League Swimming Conference has changed its organization over time. The different methods of organization have been:


★ 1962-1977: Boys only league (no girls could compete)

★ 1978-2002: Co-ed league (boys and girls competing on combined teams)

★ 2002-Present: Separate Boys' and Girls' Leagues (boys against boys, girls on girls)

Year	Championship
1962	Boys (Tied with Hackley)
1963	Boys (No Girls Team)
1976	Boys (No Girls Team)
1977	Boys (No Girls Team)
2003	Boys and Girls Win Separately
2004	Girls (Undefeated)
2005	Girls (Undefeated)
2006	Girls (Undefeated)
2007	Boys

Coaches

The head coach of the Riverdale Guambo since 1994 has been Brian Carver. The assistant coaches of the team are Amy Mattini, Melissa Hadley (Carver's girlfriend), Sarah Szotak, and Courtney Arduini. More than two thirds of the Guambo's New York High School championships have been under the leadership of Coach Carver. During the off season Brian Carver runs the Iron Man and teaches Math and Technology at Riverdale Country School. Amy Mattini teaches Middle School Mathematics at Riverdale. Melissa Hadley teaches Lower School Physical Education and health at Riverdale. Coaches Szotak and Arduini are both students at Manhattan College, to graduate in 2007.
Coach Carver is also an avid Simpsons fan, and his favorite Junior class swimmers plan to take him to see the upcoming Simpsons Movie in June 2007. Brian Carver also enjoys long walks on the beach, beautiful women, and his collection of French wines.

Pool

The Riverdale Guambo swim at the Mnuchin Family Pool below the Zambetti Gymnasium at Riverdale Country School. The Mnuchin Family Pool was dedicated in 2007, before which it was simply referred to as the Guambo Pool.

Team Spirit

Origins of the Name

The Riverdale Guambo was originally called the Riverdale Indians up until 1973. The legend behind the mysterious name is that, on their way to a meet at Ardsley, at the time one of Riverdale's biggest rivals, members of the senior boys team attempted to think of a good way to pump the rest of the team up before a meet that they were confident they would lose. They decided upon cheering the nonsensical phrase "Guambo" over and over again, getting louder and louder as they cheered (there is speculation that drugs were involved). Miraculously, they won the meet by a large margin (28 points), and from that point on their luck changed. Over the years the cultish fascination with the word led them to change the name of the team, and a separate captain was elected every year to deal with matters concerning pre-meet rituals (called the High Priest Guambo). The tradition of having a High Priest has dissipated since then.

Walking Past The Banner

The Mnuchin Family Pool has had a banner since at least 1975. The banner originally was a small black square that said "Guambo", and was later on replaced with a large maroon square with a picture of a swimmer's head on it and the words "Riverdale Swimming". The banner has always been considered a superstitious relic of the Guambo, and it has been a long standing tradition for the swimmers to, while walking to the pool deck from the locker room, tap the banner on their way to the starting blocks before the start of the meet.

Captains

At the start of every season, one male and one female upperclassman is voted to the position of captain. The captains, as well as the other senior members, are responsible for leading and guiding the team through the entire swim season. The captains' traditional responsibilities include arranging Captains' Practice (the last practice of the season, run and planned by the team captains) at the end of the year and organizing intersquad meet lineups. Their unofficial responsibilities include sending "pump-up" emails to the team before meets and bringing cookies and/or rice krispy snacks for the swimmers. Captains are often expected to be better looking than the rest of the team, but in recent years this requirement has been overlooked.

Mnuched!

The team is extremely close, and one of the great bonding experiences that the team has is a very competitive tradition of good-naturedly "burning" one another. Burns can take the form of personal insults, snappy come-backs, and (the most exciting) public humiliation of team mates. All of these seemingly harsh and unfriendly actions are taken very well by the victims and are done with only good intentions. It is understood that "burns" are not personal attacks and that they will always be laughed about later. Traditionally when one team mate "burns" another, they say "MNUCHED!!!", as a way of congratulating themselves and announcing their victory to all those present.
Originally, after a "burn" (or "mnuch" as they are now called), the swimmer would yell "Shazzam". However, during the '06-'07 season the pool in which the team practices was rededicated to the Mnuchin family. No one on the team knew much about the Mnuchins, but they did know how funny the name sounded. James Sprayregen and Benjamin "the Sting Ray" Wetzler spearheaded an effort to have the exclamation used after each mnuch to be changed from "Shazzam" to "Mnuched!".

Trivia

★ The official restaurant of the boys swim team is Dallas BBQ, notorious for their pork and beef ribs

★ It has been said that to bring good luck a swimmer should, before each race, kiss Peter Schreiner, a member of the team, on the cheek.

★ The Guambo Combo is a dish that the team proposed be served at Dallas BBQ, the team's official restaurant. Anyone who says that the Combo refers to a group of students is probably an arrogant who is way too proud of his own accomplishments. The dish includes roast duck and a half rack of baby back ribs.