Harley Allendale Columbia boys and girls swimming and diving Head Coach Peter Mancuso reached a coaching milestone last week when the HAC boys defeated Byron-Bergen/LeRoy in a dual meet on 1/19/2021. The win marked the 200th boys dual meet victory in his career. Mancuso entered the 2020-21 campaign, his 23rd as head swimming and diving coach for HAC, with 193 boys’ dual meet wins.
Mancuso began his coaching at HAC in the Finger Lakes boys swim league and then took the team independent during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons, before joining the Genesee Region Swim league in 2004-05.
The Wolves and Mancuso have found much success in the GR swim league. Both the boys’ and girls’ teams have been competing in the GR swim league since joining in 2004-05 and the boys have won ten GR Division II Titles and ten GR League Meet Championships, while the girls have won fifteen GR Division titles and nine GR League Meet Championships. Under Mancuso’s guidance, both teams have recorded ten seasons with ten or more dual meet victories. Mancuso’s current career girls dual meet record is 168-47 in 19 seasons.
The 2016-17 boys season culminated with the Wolves winning their first ever Boys’ Section Five Championship and the 2017-18 squad repeated with a Section Five Title of their own. Last year, the 2019-20 boys team added number three to the history books for HAC. Mancuso’s HAC Wolves have finished runner-up at sectionals six times during his coaching career.
The Lady Wolves have won seven Genesee Region-Niagara Orleans Intersectional championships (winter version of sectionals for girls swimming in a girls’ season during the winter) during four seasons of competing for that championship.
“It was an exciting milestone to reach, but one I didn’t reach alone,” Mancuso noted. “Lindsay Worner, Lorie Rick and Tom Ralph, my assistant coaches over the years, deserve a lot of credit. We’ve all help to build up a strong program for HAC with a winning tradition and we all enjoy working with the kids every season to help them reach new goals. Milestone are great, but we all stay with it year after year for the kids who trust us to teach and push them to reach their goals.”
Brian Charles says
I’ve known Peter for probably 38 years and he is a class act all the way. Tremendous character and the heart of the best coaches anywhere. From his early days as a class President he’s always been a leader and coach. He has always supported others in their quest to succeed and combined with his own success as a swimmer, his success as a coach is not surprising. Congrats Pete!