Rockland High graduate back to coach Swim Team

New Coach Taylor Reis (front right) with her team

By Anthony Ciano, Staff Writer

January 18, 2024

ROCKLAND- Ahead of the new swim season, an alumnus of the team was hired as the Rockland High School head coach.

When previous Head Coach Julie Margolis retired from her position as the head coach, Rockland High class of 2015 alumni, Taylor Reis filled her position.

Coach Reis, grew up swimming in her “grandmother’s pool without knowing about competitive swimming.”

Little did Reis know, her future would involve her being head coach of a swim team. 

It is only when Reis’s “older sister  joined the swim team when it was combined with Hanover, [her] interest grew.”

In her time coaching as an assistant coach and head coach, Reis has helped two of her students be able to compete in swimming at a state level.

Tori Higgins, a senior class swimmer for Rockland, said that Coach Reis is “a great coach and is doing the team some good. She makes practice fun and creates a supportive environment.”

Higgins has been a swimmer for the team since her sophomore year, taking after her sister Hannah Higgins, who graduated from Rockland High School and the swim team in 2022.

Although no longer on the swim team together, both Hannah and Tori Higgins work at a summer camp together where they can bond and enjoy swimming in the pond together. 

Not only does Reis work with swimmers from Rockland High School, she also works with swimmers from the South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School, as it is a joint team between the two schools.

In high school, Coach Reis “played volleyball, swimming, and softball,” and then went on to attend “Wheaton College in Norton MA.”

Now, Coach Reis has a successful job while coaching the small but amazing swim team. 

Although Reis does not work for the schools, she is “a chemist working for the state at a vaccine manufacturing company in Boston”.

Coach Reis can pursue both her passions of swimming and chemistry.

Senior Hannah Ivil, who competes in 4 different swimming events, claims that “the environment and the people are all very positive and uplifting.”, and also thinks that “the team does very well in making sure we are motivating each other whenever we can.”

Similar to Tori Higgins, Hannah Ivil started her swimming career as a sophomore and was inspired to join by her older sibling and Rockland class of 2021 alumni, Robert Ivil. 

Overall, Reis seems to have made an amazing impression on her current swimmers. 

Coach Reis’s goals for the future are “to grow the sport”, and to “see more students fall in love with the sport the same way [she] did.” 

Taylor says, “it is a great workout because it is easy on the joints, is a full body workout, and is a useful skill to have.”