Under Lemon, Mustangs Now Strong Small-School Program
By Paul Tenorio
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Janice Nette had exhausted all resources in the fall of 2005 as she searched for a coach who could step in to take over the club swim team she had worked so hard to form at George Mason High School.
The year before, Athletic Director Tom Horn agreed to allow Nette, then an employee at the small Falls Church high school, to start the program. And Nette enlisted physical education teacher Barbara Mahony to coach the team.
But Mahony left to teach elsewhere, and suddenly the swim program, which at the time was made up of about 20 students, was in jeopardy before it even had a chance to grow.
Nette found a solution in the most unlikely of places: a mailed wedding announcement for Jon-Michael Lemon, who had coached Nette's kids on their summer swim team several years prior.
Lemon, a George Mason High alum, received a voice mail upon returning from his honeymoon asking if he would be interested in the then-volunteer coaching job.
"I listened to the message and instead of saving it or deleting it, I just closed my phone and then opened it back up and listened to it again to make sure I heard everything right," Lemon said. "Because I hadn't seen Janice in literally a couple of years and it legitimately was out of the blue. . . . But really it was pretty easy of a decision."
Lemon took over the program and has been the perfect fit for what has since become one of the state's most successful small-school swim programs.
This season, the first in which the program received funding from the school and just five years after the program's inception, the boys' and girls' teams finished 12-0 in dual meets and won the inaugural Single A Invitational, a meet held for the state's smallest schools, as well as the Virginia A Region B championship.
Despite having to raise money themselves to pay their way, the program had early signs of success. In the first year under Lemon, the Mustangs' club team nearly registered several state qualifying times. And at the behest of Nette, Horn granted the team varsity status the following year.
The size of the team increased to about 50 swimmers, Lemon said, and in the first race of the first varsity meet, the boys' 200 medley relay qualified for states.
The boys lost just three meets in their first two varsity seasons, finishing 10-1 in 2006-07 and 10-2 last season, while the girls went 3-7 and 3-8. And George Mason was the highest finisher among A schools at last season's Virginia AA/A meet -- the boys 20th and the girls 25th.
"I remember back [in 2005-06], we might have had maybe four or five meets and we'd go there and literally bring about five boys and maybe six girls just to come to a meet," said senior captain Jack Cashin, who joined the team as a freshman when it still had club status. "And now we come and we're the big team. . . . I never would have guessed 40 people would be swimming on the team, so it's been an amazing development here."
George Mason sent 14 swimmers and a diver to the Virginia AA/A state championship meet, where A schools are heavy underdogs, and qualified in three swimming events for today's finals in Charlottesville.
"I never dreamed it would do this well when I started it," Nette said. "But it's been really fun to watch."
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