Mitchell Dubey didn’t need to swim a lap for Belchertown High School.
The senior was in contact with Division 1 programs long before his senior high school season. He could have kept training with the Bluefish club team like previous years then matriculated to the Naval Academy – where he committed in December – to continue his career and education.
Two things pulled Dubey in: the record boards at the Chestnut Hill pool and the people he learned how to swim with growing up. He started swimming at nine years old. Fellow Belchertown senior Evan Harrington introduced him to it while they were practicing karate. Sophomore Derek Gould credits himself with teaching Dubey to swim freestyle.
“I always wanted to swim for the town team because of the people,” said Dubey, the Daily Hampshire Gazette Boys Swimmer of the Year. “The main reason was for the people there and to experience what it was like.”
Belchertown coach Matthew Nodell, technically the girls coach and a boys assistant coach but he worked with Dubey every day, knew of Dubey but didn’t know him when he joined the Orioles. The times and pedigree spoke for themselves.
“I immediately knew this was going to change the whole season. It made me game plan differently,” Nodell said. “I’m very fortunate to have a ton of fantastic athletes. Mitch is on that other level where I have to figure out what’s going to work best for him.”
Nodell initially felt pressure to coach Dubey the right way and not impede his progress. Their relationship quickly became collaborative. Nodell talked to Dubey’s club coaches to get a blueprint so he wasn’t completely altering the training plan. Dubey, who coached Belchertown’s youth teams – and some of his future teammates – earlier in his high school career while recovering form an injury, provided feedback and eventually helped develop the training sets for the Orioles’ top training group, which also included Harrington and Luke Giguere, among others.
“He was like having a little coach on deck because he always wanted to be involved. He was the first person to want to be an example to help out. He cheered everybody on,” Nodell said. “He immediately fit on the team like he had been there the four years. It definitely surprised me. I’ve been in swimming a long time. I’ve seen a lot of swimmers that are really good, some of them know they’re that good and not in the best way. With Mitch it really threw me in a good loop when he was very active and supportive of everybody, unofficially taking a leadership role.”
The Orioles seriousness surprised Dubey. He was expecting more of a focus on fun but was pleasantly surprised with the intensity.
“I expected it to be a lot more laid back,” Dubey said. “What I found is, yes, that is true but there are some sets that my coach designed for me, Evan and Luke to do that did push myself.”
As Dubey reacquainted himself with old friends and made new ones, he remained focused on the record boards. He etched his name into three slots: lowering the 500-yard freestyle from 4 minutes, 36 seconds to 4:30, the 100 freestyle from 47.79 to 47.33, and the 200 individual medley from 1:56 to 1:55.
Some of the swimmers whose records he took down like Benjamin LaClair, Aiden Endress and Chris Chumbley attended Belchertown’s first meet of the year to watch him break the record.
“He’s extremely smart about his race planning like I’ve never seen before, especially in a high schooler,” Nodell said. “The will to learn where he thinks he could improve and work toward that is very meticulous, it’s something you don’t see a whole lot of in swimming. He was always looking at the finite things in terms of his stroke.”
Dubey didn’t stop there. He swept the 200 and 500 freestyle at both the Central/West sectional championship and the state championships. The Orioles also won the sectional 200 medley relay championship with him swimming breaststroke.
“It sets a great image for the program that here’s this fantastic swimmer and he wanted to be part of this team and he talked about how he loved it,” Nodell said. “That’s huge.”
Mitchell Dubey, senior, Belchertown
Luke Giguere, sophomore, Belchertown
Evan Harrington, senior, Belchertown
Tyler Hetu, sophomore, Easthampton
Samuel Kennedy, junior, Amherst
Jack Mattison-Gulotta, sophomore, Northampton
Callum McDonald, junior, Amherst
Jacob Laney, junior, Amherst
Henry Bayne, senior, Northampton
Derek Gould, sophomore, Belchertown
Richard Guerron, junior, Amherst
Eli Laney, eighth grade, Amherst
Eric Lian, junior, Amherst
Reed Mitchell, sophomore, Northampton
Finn Nelson-Sanger, sophomore, Northampton
Brady Pijar, freshman, Holyoke
Miguel Warton, senior, Northampton