When I was a little one, joining swim team for the first time, I thought my coach had the coolest job ever. Having people call you coach, I mean obviously, they were important. And since they were a coach, obviously, they were pretty good at swimming. I looked up to them so much, I wanted to be just like them some day. Before I knew it, that dream became a reality. I was coaching that same team that I was once a little kid on. Working with those same coaches that I once looked up to.

I get to wake up every morning, and be reminded of why I wanted to do this in the first place. For those learning how to swim, I got to be with them every step of the way. From the tears at the first practice, because how could they swim across the pool themselves, to the best times and championship races at the end of the season, and everything in between.

I coach to share my love of the sport with others. Over the past six years, I have taught so many young ones how to swim, and have gotten to watch them grow up. My very first summer, I had a parent come up to me, telling me that her daughter wanted to be on swim team, but she was unsure if she could swim across the pool, once. Without hesitation, I told her I would work with her. I could see myself in her.

I coach to help my swimmers realize their potential. Every season, one of my goals is to have everyone swim every event in their age group. I don’t want to is not a valid reason not to try an event, you never know if you are going to like it until you try it. This causes a lot of tears and stress, especially in the younger ones. But as I tell them, I wouldn’t put them in an event unless I knew that they could do it. I share of the time I was in their shoes. My first season I was put in the longest event in my age group, the 100 freestyle and I cried. I don’t know what my coach was thinking when she put me in this event, but none the less she asked me to do it, so I did, I survived. And guess what, so do my swimmers, they finish that race often with a smile on their face.

I coach to help my swimmers reach their goals. One of my favorite stories come from my winter swimmers. I had my swimmers fill out goal sheets one season, so I knew what their goals were for the season, and how I could help them reach their goals. I had one swimmer who had the goal of getting a zone cut in her favorite race, 50 Freestyle. She told me that was her goal, after losing her sheet. Late that season she met her goal, which was a very special moment for her. At the start of the next season, she came up to me one day after practice with her goal sheet from the previous year, that she found in her desk. She had more goals written down on her sheet, aside from getting that zone cut, and she met all of them. When she handed it back to me she goes “I found this, and I met all my goals, so I wanted to give it back. Thanks.” Later that season I got to watch her crush all her best times – I’m holding onto this goal sheet for a couple more years until she graduates – so she can look back at all the progress she made.

I coach to remind my swimmers why they started swimming. It’s so easy to get caught up in the competition and in your own goals. You compare every swim to your best, and if you have a bad swim, it’s easy to let it eat away at you. To me, there is so much more to swimming than best times. It’s about the friendships, the lessons, how to better yourself and work hard for what you want. But more than that, it’s about having fun. There was a time there I was swimming and I hated going to practice. It wasn’t fun for me anymore, and I almost walked away because of that. But I was able to do some searching, and was able to remind myself why I fell in love with the sport in the first place. Yes, there will be those hard practices when you can’t wait to go home, but there will also be those fun ones so that they can remember that it’s about having fun.

My coaches taught me so much over the time that I worked with them. I just hope that I am able to teach my swimmers half as much as my coaches taught me.