DURHAM – In most sports, it’d be considered a strange scene, as if some mistake had been made.

There was Steve Van Der Beken, the coach of the Manchester West and Central swim teams, waving his arms frantically, hopping around with his right knee wrapped in an ace bandage and screaming words of encouragement across the pool to a swimmer in the boys 500-yard freestyle race at the NHIAA state swimming and diving championships at Swasey Pool on Saturday, Feb. 10.

The only problem: Nick Catano, the swimmer Van Der Beken was supporting, wasn’t from West or Central.

“I don’t hold anything back with any of the kids,” said Van Der Beken, who’s worked with several swimmers outside of the Manchester high school teams through the Manchester Swim Team, including Goffstown High’s Catano. “I enjoy coaching all of these kids, and I’ve been doing it for a long time.”

In the tight-knit world of New Hampshire high school swimming and diving, Van Der Beken’s actions aren’t out of the ordinary. Unlike other sports, battles lines aren’t drawn by town borders, school colors or lane dividers, if they’re drawn at all.

Opposing athletes and coaches cheer for each other, teams practice and mingle with one another, and swimmers from adjoining towns frequently team up, often on one of the area’s year-round club teams like Van Der Beken’s MST Rapids or the Manchester YMCA’s Tiger Sharks out of Goffstown.

As a result, it makes for many incidents like Saturday’s, where a swim meet can be more a reunion of old friends than a statewide competition.

“That’s what great about swimming,” said Central swimmer and Hooksett native Ashley Green, who placed third in both the 200-yard freestyle and 500 free. “It’s such a close-knit sport, we practice together all the time. I guess you can say that about other sports, like soccer and everything, but there’s something different about swimming. We all know how hard we work, and we can relate to each other.”

Green speaks with experience. Practicing throughout the year with both the Memorial and West teams, she counts the Crusaders’ Meghan Raimondo and the Blue Knights’ Maria Colella of Bedford as two of her best friends – and teammates; the three compete on MST.

Yet, the connections and good will don’t stop with the athletes. Concord coach Karen Jenovese and Hopkinton and Bow coach Joanne Jackson work together on the Racquet Club of Concord’s Blue Dolphins club team as coach and administrator, respectively, while Goffstown coach Cerelia Carosella also works as a coach for the Tiger Sharks.

Taking over the Grizzlies’ team midway through this season and, as she put it, “starting from scratch,” Carosella said other coaches, from Kearsarge and Pinkerton Academy especially, helped her with computing team stats and sorting through the paperwork.

Around the state’s pools, such actions are considered friendly, not unexpected.

“Oh yeah,” Catano said. “There’s a lot of love around here.”

Local results

Green was Central’s lone individual participant, finishing the 200 free in 2-minutes, 2.21 seconds and the 500 free in 5:29.29. But she wasn’t totally alone. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Shannon Nealon, Anna Biron, Katherine Bell and Green finished in 2:03.26 for 26th, while the 400-yard relay team took 21st at 4:35.55.

The Memorial girls team placed 19th, one spot behind Central, while the boys took 27th behind several standout performances. Senior Westleigh Morin finished fourth in both the girls 200 free at 2:02.69 and 500 free at 5:31.09, while the boys pulled in points behind Patrick Fleming’s eighth-place finish in the 100 free and 10th-place finish in the 50 free.