My New Makos

Back in 2004 when I was wrestling with the idea of becoming a year-round swim coach, there was an array of doubts drawing me away from such a prospective opportunity. My primary questions I can’t posing to myself was “would my coaching principles become too myopic to the sport of swimming and, almost more important, would my coaching philosophies shift more to the individual than the team?”

My four years on-board with Makos brought more optimism from the sport than I could ever imagine. I know that I would not be in Davidson without the guidance that I received from my USS experiences and my fellow coaches.

Since moving to Davidson, I never thought that I would miss Makos as much as I do. The increased responsibility over the years was both humbling and very rewarding. I had two groups of my own and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. On one group I had teenagers that were starting to commit themselves to the sport and rising to new feats in their age groups. In the other groups, I had middle school swimmers that were looking to not only get better, but to continue to improve and enjoy the occasional thrill of competition. Both had positive attitudes and they grew on me with every practice and competition; they are irreplaceable.

Now I have the responsibility of coaching two groups for the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club comprised of swimmers that have quite a few differences from my Makos groups. The first group of swimmers, labeled the Junior Swim League, meets for 45 minutes. All of these kids are great in their own right. Half of them think I’m pretty lame, a quarter of them think I’m entertaining, and the remaining fourth usually are underwater when we are trying to accomplish something…anything. Note – this proportion is eerily similar with the college swimmers. The second Mecklenburg group is labeled Teen Fit (similar to the ‘High School’ group of Makos.) They is a lot of talent there, but many of them are unpolished in several aspects of the sport and look as if the interest in swimming was never fully sparked.

MAC is much larger than Makos – it spans four different facilities across Mecklenburg Country and the Charlotte Metropolitan area. There are many differences to Carolina Swimming from the Potomac Valley, but one things remains – the opportunity to teach.

I don’t expect to form life-long bonds with these swimmers from North Carolina in a couple of months. It took a lot of time, communication and good fortune for that to unfurl. For all I know, I might be on my way to open brand-new door to a future I could not have imagined (say, in 2012) thanks to MAC. But one thing that Makos and MAC have done is allowed me to continue to teach young people and stay enthusiastic about coaching and the sport of swimming. For both organizations, I am very grateful.

This weekend, I’m in Ohio and for the first time, a substitute will be monitoring my swimmers back in Davidson. I hope everything goes well – just like I hope it does back in Fairfax. I miss them all when I’m not around them.