Riding With the Boys
My first college coaching job was spent leading the men’s team
I swam competitively for 15 years, including all four years in college. When I finished college, I was happy with the end of my swimming career. I achieved most of my goals and was ready to move on with the next thing.
I wasn’t sure what that next thing was going to be.
I worked for a season as an assistant swim coach for a YMCA swim team before deciding to attend graduate school for exercise and health studies.
One night, a few months after I finished graduate school, I received a voicemail from my college coach asking if I’d be interested in coaching at my alma mater. I immediately assumed she meant as her assistant.
She didn’t.
There was a one-year position coaching the men’s swim team. The men’s coach needed to complete a residency requirement for his Ph.D program. Practice had already started, so I would have to move fast if I wanted the job.
I said yes.
I was 24 years old.
A few weeks later, I was driving an hour and a half one way to coach the men’s team at my alma mater — a Division III college.
