Why I Coach

I always get asked this question in one form or another.  I guess I should start from the beginning.

I began swimming before I can even remember.  I swam for a summer league team in the Prince William Swim League called the Lake Ridge Lancers.  I was hooked on the sport from the first day.  I wanted nothing more than to be in the pool 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  I started competing when I was 5 years old.  I remember how much I thought my coaches walked on water and were amazing.  Many of whom are still involved in the sport today!  I would spend the next 9 years swimming for the Lancers along with different club teams (OCCS, FBST and QDD).  The summer that I was 14 my youngest sister joined the team so I was at the pool for 2 hours after my practice was over.  I decided to start helping out with the 6 and unders.  It was amazing.  I still remember every one of those kids that was in that group.  Many of whom swam all the way through high school (I even coached a few in high school).  Who would have thought that at 14 I would find my passion and love of coaching. 

The next season I became a paid coach working with the 10 & unders.  As I continued to train and work hard through high school I began to realize that I may not be the greatest swimmer but I had an understanding for the sport many of my team mates did not have.  In high school, I attended C.D. Hylton High School (HHS), my junior and senior year I would stay after practice (because my club team practiced a couple hours after high school practice at the same pool) and work on meet line ups with my high school coach.  We would talk about the line ups and how she tries to set everyone up for success.  This stuck with me.  I had plenty of coaches who I felt tried to set their swimmers up to fail and that made it hard for me to give it my all. 

After high school was over I was still coaching with my summer league team every year and somehow always had the same group of kids I had as 6 & unders.  At this point they were 9-10s or 11-12s.  I was always trying to find new ways to challenge them and every time they met my challenge.  It made me strive to be better for them.  I was doing everything I could to learn and get better. 

I went off to college and my freshman year I swam at Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington).  I did extremely well for a walk on, but my coach drove the fun right out of it for me.  After that season I decided to hang up my cap and goggles and never got back in the pool to train. 

Apparently things happen for a reason.  My HHS coach contacted me that fall and asked if I would be interested in helping out with the team.  So now I was on deck coaching in the winter.  It was a blast, but definitely not without some bumps in the road.  My sister who is 3 and half years younger than me was on the team.  I had to make sure nobody thought I was playing favorites.  I learned a ton that year being on deck with my former coach. 

The following spring the HHS coach told me she would not be returning next year and wondered if I would be interested in taking over high school team.  I did not even hesitate and quickly I said “YES!”  She took me into the Athletic Director’s office and sat through my interview and gave me a great recommendation and I became the new Head Coach of HHS.  I was 19 years old at the time.  I had friends still on the team along with my sister.  I had to draw a hard line in the sand and tell my friends we could not be friends until they graduated high school and they were no longer on the team.  It was very challenging, but it all worked out. 

We had a rough start my first few years at HHS.  A new school had been built and the majority of the swimmers were going to the new school.  I had to rebuild the team.  I recruited swimmers from crew, football, lacrosse and any sport that was off during the winter just so I could fill my roster.  Then things started to change.  Some of those kids decided to swim year round and we went from the bottom of the district right to the top. 

A couple of years after I got into coaching high school I ran into my old club coach.  He was no longer coaching but the General Manager for the team and his new senior coach was looking for an assistant.  I told him if the schedule did not interfere with my job and high school coaching I was interested.  He brought me in a few weeks later to interview with this new senior coach.  I walked on deck to see this 6 foot 6 guy with long blonde hair and his dog running around deck. He was yelling out numbers and it sounded like he was speaking another language.  I just sat down and started to watch. 

We go into the interview and the senior coach tells me, “this is how I run my program and this is what I expect from you.”  I just kind of sat there.  Not knowing what to do or say.  Somehow I got the job.  My first day on the job I followed him around like a puppy dog.  I was trying to soak in as much information as humanly possible.  After practice we went out to dinner and the coach asks me, “do you talk?”  I said,  “Absolutely! I just feel like on deck it is your show.  I am trying to learn your language and how you want things done.”  This continued for 2 more months.  Finally I was comfortable enough that I understood what was going on.  We ended up being a great team on deck.  I always described us as Yin and Yang.  He wore his emotions on his sleeve and I was very calm and relaxed.   We worked together for 2 years and I think I learned more in those two years than all my other years of coaching combined. 

After our second season together a new General Manager came in (my old coach retired) and wanted to take the team in a different direction.  The senior coach left and I tried to stay on, but eventually made the move to another team where I got the opportunity to start my own program from the ground up.  The one downfall was the pool I was going to be running was 60+ miles one way from my house.  I decided to do it anyway.  My first winter there was long and hard.  I had about 12 kids but only 4 showed up on regular basis.  The problem was the 4 that showed up should have been in 4 different groups.  By that spring I started questioning my decision and decided to take ownership of the program.  I started talking to parents about bringing friends and then started reaching out to local summer league teams.  That next fall my group of 15 kids was over 200.  Now I had a different problem…I needed coaches.  I ended up bringing on another 3 coaches and we ran it like a well oiled machine.  However, it was hard.  I was working an 8 hour day, driving over an hour to practice coaching for 2.5 hours and driving home which was an hour away.  It started to take its toll, but I loved coaching so much I could not give it up.  I did this for 3 years eventually building the program to just over 300 swimmers. 

It was amazing, but the toll on me was becoming too much.  If I wanted to continue to coach it would have to become my fulltime job but my boss for the team had no interest in paying me a full time salary.  So I started looking for a way to make my dream happen.  That is when I met Joe through a friend.  I flew out 4^th of July weekend of 2011 and moved to AZ shortly thereafter. 

I guess I got a little long winded here.  The whole reason for this is “why do I coach?”  I guess now that you know my background I can answer that question.  It is an absolute passion for me.  I love working with swimmers trying to make them better than the day before.  I know plenty of people that want to coach the next Michael Phelps.  That is not what I am looking for.  I am looking for kids to have a great passion for the sport, enjoy it, and continue swimming as long as they want.  If there goal is to swim in high school I want to help them get there.  If it is to swim in college I want to help pave the way.  If they just do it because they love it, I want to make it as fun as possible.  I want to help mold great well rounded individuals that are just as successful out of the pool as they are in the pool.  Swimming made me the person I am today because of the great coaches I had.  They taught me time management, goal setting, and perseverance.  These are all things I hope to pass on to my swimmers.