Why I Coach

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” someone asked me.

“A swimming coach,” I said.

“Ryan, you’re smart. You should go do something worthwhile like cure cancer or solve global warming.” My classmate's words stung.

I was a senior in high school and had made up my mind the career path I wanted to take. Several of my classmates scoffed at my answer to the question, conjuring up stereotypical images of a swimming coach- a fat guy with a clipboard, a stopwatch, and a whistle sitting in a chair. “Is that really what you want to be?”

I don’t remember my exact answer to that question, but I knew that I had found the vocation that I would passionately pursue from that day forward – to be a swimming coach. I didn’t want to be the kind of coach my friends were imagining, but much more than that.

The reason I began coaching is because of my swimming coach. Though I swam for him for less than two years, I was transformed by the experience. I learned the value of discipline, the joy of effort, and the meaning of pain. I discovered that when I set an objective, I could surely reach it no matter how far off it seemed. My coach had such an impact on my life, that I felt called to have the same impact on others’.

“Why do you coach?” read the hand-written note card last Monday during a sit-down talk with the Senior I group. The question stared back at me. I had put considerable thought into that same question many times, particularly when I left Florida to come to Chapel Hill. Not since that day in high school had the situation called for me to articulate my answer as clearly as I hoped to then. My answer was this:

I coach because I enjoy it. I coach for that moment when the hand touches the wall, the scoreboard screams victory, and the swimmer’s face says the hardship has all been worth it. I coach for the chance to fail and the opportunity to succeed. I coach for the people I grow to know and the relationships I have made. I coach for the opportunity to show a swimmer that he is capable of so much more than he thought. For the chance to be for someone else what my coach was to me – a motivator and a mentor.

Early in the movie The Gladiator, the Roman general Maximus seeks to rally his soldiers before battle. Shouting to the masses before leading them to certain death and destruction, he proclaims that “what we do in life echoes in eternity.” For me, that quote put into words the value of my chosen career. I had the privilege of learning firsthand the impact on a life that a coach can have - the personal empowerment and confidence that can be discovered within one’s self and lead to a lifetime of achievement. That is the essence of coaching for me – to show young people what personal discipline, effort, and courage can achieve and then sending them on their way. It is much more than just swimming. If I can affect someone’s life for the better, I believe my efforts can echo in eternity and have lasting impact on the world.