Braddock’s Garcia and Mater Lakes’ Smith are the Dade Swimming Coaches of the Year
Braddock’s boys swimmers didn’t want to settle for silver any longer.
And at Mater Lakes, it was also a breakthrough season.
Two programs, which were nowhere near powerhouse status in the sport until a few years ago, each made history as the Braddock boys won their first state title after back-to-back frustrating runner-up finishes the past two seasons.
Meanwhile, Mater Lakes’ boys also won their first state title and their girls finished state runner-up for the first time.
Leading these builds to becoming champions were Braddock coach Katia Garcia and Mater Lakes coach Sarah Smith.
As such, Garcia and Smith are this year’s Miami Herald Miami-Dade County Swimming Coaches of the Year.
Garcia is once again the winner on the boys side just two years after guiding the Bulldogs from a 33rd place finish in 2021 to state runner-up finishes in 2022 and 2023.
Last season, a controversial disqualification denied Braddock a title. But this time around, the Bulldogs left no doubt led by their wins in the 200-yard medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. Seniors George Gonzalez and Dylan Ferguson, who shared Dade Swimmer of the Year honors and each won two individual state titles, joined Peyton Selts and Anthony Pineiro to win the 400 free relay with a time of 2:57.97. Robert Alvarez, Pineiro, Ferguson and Gonzalez teamed up to win the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:30.63
“It’s amazing, such a great feeling to have come so far, all the sacrifices from parents, from athletes, words can’t even describe it,” Garcia said after Braddock won its state championship.
Smith secured Girls’ Coach of the Year honors after leading both of her teams to program-best finishes.
The boys team totaled 221 points, nine more than second-place Jacksonville Bishop Kenny, and the girls had a second-best 208 points behind only Tampa Academy of the Holy Names’ 279 points. Smith’s boys had four individual runner-up finishes and the girls were led by freshman Jia Amores, who won the 100 fly and was part of a state championship 400 free relay.
“We have really great captains as well, and they were in on the vision, and so we’ve been building this vision actually since states last year,” Smith said.
