By Mark Leiser, Wildwood Leader, Wednesday, July 15th 1998

Although she is considered a rookie on the Wildwood beach Patrol, Nollaig Healy acts like an experienced veteran. Perched on her stand at the base of Burke Avenue, she scans the seemingly endless blue ocean in front of her, keeping an eye on swimmers who sometimes forget the perils of the sea.

Spending long hours in the sun comes with the territory, and not even the grueling physical workouts are enough to diminish her enthusiasm. “This is a dream come true,” said Healy, who spent the last three years in her native Ireland teaching water safety and training to become a lifeguard. “I’d love to come back next year if they’ll take me.”

Healy is one of 11 female guards on the Wildwood Beach Patrol this summer, by far the most in the city’s history, and the second-highest total of any patrol in the county behind only Ocean City. That’s quite a difference for a patrol that, since its inception 90 years ago, was almost entirely male for the better part of this century.

Capt. Lou Cirelli said the increase in female lifeguards has been a natural progression, not the result of any concious effort made by him or his staff. “More women are gaining the confidence that they can pass the test, and gaining confidence that, once they get the job, they’ll be treated like everyone else. That’s a very important perception,” Cirelli said.

Cirelli, a fourth year captain and 35-year lifeguard in the Wildwoods, recalled the days in the mid-1960s when nobody ever thought there would be female lifeguards on the beach. The belief was that pools and lakes were one thing, but oceans were an entirely different monster. But with time came the realization that women were as capable as males, sometimes more so, to practice lifesaving at the beach.

The transition, he said, has been smooth. Sure , there have been a few general personal conflicts that are bound to arise when 72 people of varying backgrounds work so closely together, but Cirelli has yet to hear of any discord that is solely gender-related. “We haven’t experienced any of the problems that some people may have percieved happening,” Cirelli said. “The women are an integral part of our beach patrol and they do the job expected of any lifeguard, male or female.”

Michelle Busza and Theresa Schreiber, who both joined the Wildwood Beach Patrol in 1994, have the longest tenure of any of the female guards. They hace seen the number of female guards in Wildwood increase from four in their rookie year to the current 11, and they said that, for the most part, the women are accepted by their male colleagues.

“Most of the guys are very supportive of what we do and how we do it,” Schreiber said. But for the rookie female guards, three of whom are working and living in a different country, coming into a male-dominated environment was alittle unnerving. Many of them remembered showing up for rookie school,a one-week intensive training course focusing on first aid, CPR and rescue signals, fearing that they would be the only female.

As it turned out, six of the 20 rookies were women. The general consensus was that all of the rookies bonded well, and there was still enough room for some friendly competetition between the two genders. “The guys beat us in the running, but we cane back and beat them in the swimming, so it evened up,” Healy said with a laugh.

Six-year guard Byron King shares a stand with Healy. He said the influx of women patrol members caught some of the veterans off-guard. “At the beginning, some of the guys were hesitant, but they got used to it really quickly,” King said. “the women want to be lifeguards just like everyone else and that really comes across.”

Although treated as equals by their male counterparts, women lifeguards still deal with plenty of stereotypes thanks to the people whose lives they are protecting. Bathers often make remarks about “women’s work” being “easy ” and the guards hear more references to the television show “Baywatch” than they care to remember. Rookie guard Maria Maguire remembered being asked to pose for pictures with children, simply because the kids and parents equated her work with what they saw on TV.

“(Baywatch) girls couldn’t go through all the things we do,” Maguire said matter-of-factly. Even the male guards don’t envy what the women have to endure. “I hear alot of people make comments to them,” said Eric Nemeth, who monitors the Garfield Avenue beach. “Everyone expects them to be like Pamela Anderson or Carmen Electra, and they’re not. They’re athletes, not supermodels.”

The changes in roster compostition has required some additional work for the patrol’s officers. Only two female lifeguards were on active duty when the beach patrol headquarters was built, and a bathroom that doubled as a locker room was more than enough to meet their needs. Now, however, about 11 women share space in the larger but still cramped medical trearment room.

Although additional locker space is being added and conditions are improving, Cirelli hopes to move the treatment facilities elsewhere to give the women a room of their own by the end of this summer. With budgetary and time constraints, however, that may not happen until next season.

“We’ve explained it to the guards and they understand the reasons why things are the way they are,” Cirelli said. “To be honest, no one expected this many women to be working here this soon.”

Schreiber, one of the two five-year guards, spoke of the cramped space and about how some of her colleagues still don’t have locker space. But she summed up the conditions in five simple words. “We’ve come a long way,” she said.

That they have, considering that when Cirelli took over as captain in 1995, he established only the second all-female lifeguarding competition in South Jersey. Last year, more than 70 women from the 15 South Jersey beach patrols competed in four events - rowing, swimming, surf dash and rescue board. This years event will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, on the Wildwood beach, and the founder said it gets bigger - and better - every year. “The competition is as intense as in any other race, and the level of skill is excellent. You’re looking at top-notch athletes,” Cirelli said.

Although the increase of females on county beach patrols and the creation of all-female competitions has changed the make-up of lifeguarding, it has not changed the philosophy. Teamwork, professionalism and saving lives are still what it’s all about.

“They are a very good group of lifeguards and they are a vital part of our staff,” Cirelli said. “Women lifeguards are definitely here to stay.”

© 1998 The Wildwood Leader. Reproduced with permission.