10/17/2025
🌟 2025 INDUCTEE SPOTLIGHT - 1975 & 1976 GIRLS' SWIM TEAMS 🌟
The 1974-75 and 1975-76 girls’ swim teams were the first State Champions for Concord girls sports and second team in Concord history to win two consecutive championships. The girls’ swim team was coached by Mrs. Carol Wood and assistant Mr. Tom Fagley.
Coach Wood started the girls swim program in 1970. The following years, as the conference expanded, Concord won multiple Conference Championships, but winning a State Championship was not yet a possibility for girls’ teams. The first year the girls were allowed in the State meet was 1975. Concord had many outstanding swimmers, led by Sandra Kupchick who led the team all three years she was at Concord. This was her senior year, and under her leadership, the team was thriving, but a strategic sacrifice on Sandy’s part was necessary to boost the team’s score and win the State meet. Sandy selflessly agreed to leave the 200 Medley Relay’s certain first place finish to swim in the 400 Free Relay and help score points in that event to boost the team’s point count to win the meet. The move worked, with the relay coming in third, and Concord’s first female State Championship was solidified!
The team was dominant again in the 1975-1976 season, winning the conference again with a 9-0 record, 10-1 overall with a loss to Nether Providence in Pennsylvania. Their closest meet was against rival Brandywine High School, a battle for points that repeated itself in the final meet of the season. This year Coach Wood was pregnant, and her due date was around the State meet. Sure enough, she went into labor the morning of the meet, and assistant coach Mr. Fagley had to take over. In spite of, and perhaps because of, Coach Wood’s absence, the girls reached a deeper level of motivation and swam & dove extremely well, scoring points in every event. However, after the morning trials, Concord was behind Brandywine in points. The 400 Free Relay was seeded fourth, but they would need to finish in first to get the points needed to win the meet. They rose to the challenge. The relay swam so well that night that one of the officials asked if the team swam a different four swimmers from the card of eight listed. They had not — they all just dropped an unbelievable amount of time to get the win and set a state record. Concord won the State Championship!