Backing Up Brea-Olinda’s Boasts : Swimming: Their coach doesn’t want to hear it, but the defending 3-A champion Wildcats are favorites again.

Oh-oh, the members of the Brea-Olinda girls’ swim team are again torturing their coach, Phyllis Curry.

They’re talking about winning a second Southern Section 3-A championship and it’s only March. All of which makes Curry cringe.

“Yeah, we’re going to win again,” Debbie Weber said. “There’s no one who can beat us.”

Said Sachi White: “We win every (dual) meet by 50 points.”

Said Weber: “50 points? More like 90.”

Said Amy Clark: “Basically, we dominate.”

And so on.

Curry rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. A cautious person--and one who sometimes sees the glass as being half-empty--this is not the kind of talk she enjoys.

Trouble is, her swimmers might be right.

Brea has five of its top six swimmers back from a team that swam away with the 3-A title last season, winning by 43 1/2 points over second-place Trabuco Hills. Add to them a couple of talented freshmen and an improved group of seniors and the Wildcats have to be considered solid favorites to repeat.

Even if their coach would rather not hear it.

“The first time you win a title, it’s great,” Curry said. “But the next year, you have to be looking over your shoulder. You don’t know who’s out there and you never know what’s going to happen.

“I worry about the three ‘I’s’--ineligibility, illness and injury.”

Said Weber: “Coach, remember there’s no ‘I’ in team. You always tell us that.”

Caught by her own words, even Curry admits that, barring the unusual, the Wildcats stand a good chance of repeating.

The strength of the team is in its numbers, particularly the five who were instrumental in winning the title last season. Weber, White, Clark, Tracy Palmero and Robyn Kracik all scored points at the Southern Section meet.

The only missing link is Erica Dunn, who graduated. She won the 100-yard butterfly at the 3-A meet a year ago.

That loss should be cushioned by incoming freshmen Jennifer Barely and Cheryl Voyles and the improvement of seniors Colleen Harris, Linda Niwa and Melanie Murphy.

“Last year, everything just clicked at the final,” Weber said. “We came together as a team. This year, I think it’s going to click again.”

Weber, who is senior-class president, was the only swimmer other than Dunn to win an individual event in last season’s 3-A final. She finished first in the 100 breaststroke, setting a school record in the process with a time of 1 minute 7.29 seconds.

She and Palmero are seniors, while Clark, Kracik and White are sophomores. As individuals they are good, as a team they are great.

“They think as a team,” Curry said. “I remember last year, Tracy asked me early in the season what event she should work on to help the team. Swimming is such an individual sport, but they approach it as a team.”

All five have grown up with swimming, each having competed for club teams most of their lives. White has the least experience and she has been swimming competitively for five years.

Such talent and numbers made it easy for the Wildcats last season when they won the section’s 200 individual medley and 400 freestyle relays.

They also showed their depth in the butterfly. Dunn won the event, White was second and Palmero sixth. Kracik, who splits time between the swim and gymnastics teams, then won the consolation race, giving Brea 45 points in the event.

“We just had too much depth last year,” Palmero said.

Said White: “And the freshmen were studs.”

Said Weber: “I wouldn’t go that far. We got got real good performances at the final, that’s what did it.”

Said Kracik: “Plus the freshmen were studs.”

Said Palmero: “Well . . . “

Coordinating this madness is Curry. The Wildcats have actually won four Southern Section titles in her seven years as coach. They were 2-A champions from 1986-88, then were moved up to the 3-A in 1989.

Brea finished seventh that season and second in 1990.

“I knew I had a pretty good group coming back last season,” Curry said. “After the Southern Section relays, I was pretty confident about our chances, if everyone stayed healthy and eligible.”

This year’s group shouldn’t be a problem in the area of eligibility. They have a better than 3.0 grade-point average as a group, which has qualified them for academic recognition by the section.

As for injuries or illness, well that’s still beyond Curry’s control. Of course, even with good health, she has other pitfalls to worry about.

“What if someone gets disqualified?” Curry said. “And you don’t know what freshmen have come in. What if another school has a great group of freshmen? What if . . . “

Said Weber: “Coach Curry just gets stressed out at the championship meet. That’s why I don’t want to sit near her at this year’s championship meet.”

And the Wildcats are already making plans for that day. Even if their coach doesn’t want to hear it.