A day in the life of a swim coach
Surrounded by a dozen 9-year-olds screeching directly into my eardrums, I could feel what little sanity I had left slip from my grasp. As the one coach of four who could make it to the first swim meet of the summer season, I quickly became overwhelmed with more work and stress than I was equipped to handle.
A different race started every minute, and as the coach of a team of kids in ages ranging from five to fifteen, it was nobody’s responsibility but my own that each kid remembered their race and got to the starting block on time to swim. Despite our team being in the worst division of our conference, I didn’t take this responsibility lightly; the kids were counting on me, which was apparent by how each one of them ran up to me asking when their race was about every 30 seconds.
As the meet continued, I found that I was surprisingly able to keep everyone on track. Dishing out pens so that the kids could write the time of their event on their wrist was perhaps the greatest feat of genius to ever be witnessed by mankind. Yet my ingenuity and leadership skills could only take me so far.
At last, disaster had struck; little 7-year-old Sophia had missed her race. As the buzzer that started the event sounded she bolted up to me, asking when she was supposed to go to the block. My jaw dropped and I frantically started apologizing, trying to find a way to make the situation right. I was expecting tears, or a frown at the very least, but all she did was say “Okay!” through giggles and run back to her friends, while I stood there dumbfounded, the chaos continuing around me.
It was at that moment that my pointless stress finally disappeared and I was reminded of why I love this job more than anything. As a team with teenage coaches as opposed to adult ones, the kids get a real chance to just be their fun, lighthearted selves. They live their lives constantly smiling, laughing, and truly making the best out of everything that comes their way: a refreshing scene for a stressed out teenager. They remind me that everything in life is a joy and no moment is sour if you make the best out of it.
The joy of this job doesn’t just end there; the kids truly get to be themselves as a result of the small age gap but that doesn’t mean they don’t respect the coaches as one might expect. My favorite time of year is the end of the season, when the swimmers get their trophies and ribbons from the season and shower me and my coworkers with endless thank you’s, hugs, and kind words. The compliments that really mean the most are the ones from the occasional parent who says that they can’t thank me enough for being a role model to their child who won’t stop talking about me. Even thinking about the relationship I have with my swimmers warms my heart in a way that nothing else in my life does. I love them in a way that I’m assuming is similar to the way a parent loves their own children, and for this I am truly grateful.
