It’s National Coaches Day. I’m not sure who makes up these days, but I’ll celebrate this one (I didn’t post last week on National Sons Day…don’t tell my boys…although, I like to think every day is National Sons Day in my house.)

I have had many coaches in my life, most of them swim coaches, some of them better than others, all of them contributing to the person I have become (or who I am striving to be).

My first coach, Joe, taught me the importance of loving what you do. Joe wanted us to love swimming. It didn’t matter how fast we swam (although, I enjoyed swimming more when I was swimming fast); Joe knew we’d only swim our best times if we truly loved the sport: practicing, racing, being with our teammates. We spent a lot of time swimming; we had to love it to get the most out of it.
This is true today. Whether it is work, staying-at-home, volunteering; however we choose to spend our time, we have to love what we do, or we won’t give it the energy and passion it deserves to do it well.

My high school coaches, Jeff and Gerry, taught me the importance of being part of a team. No longer was I able to swim the events I wanted to swim; as a member of the Xavier College Prep high school team, I was assigned to swim the events that would best contribute to the team’s goals: a dual meet win streak, a state championship. Even in an individual sport, I learned that my gifts and talents were not to be used for myself; they were to be used to help the common good (in this case, my high school team).
This is true today. We all have gifts and talents to be used, not for our own glory, but for the greater good.

My club coach during high school, Pierre, taught me the value of wanting to work hard. Not just working hard because I was asked to work hard, but showing up every day with the desire to do the work hard.
This too is true today. It is important to work hard. But the desire to want to work hard will carry you further.

And then there is Tim. Tim was my swim coach at Notre Dame. He coached me in the pool, but his greatest lessons were shared outside of the pool. And he’s still teaching me today…to live, to learn, to pray, to believe, to be good and to do good, and to receive love. Sending you so much love, Tim.

Good coaches coach; great coaches teach. The best coaches stay with you forever. Thank you coaches!