Beyond The Pool (final) Max McCloskey

 

    Beyond The Pool- Max McCloskey

    Most people see a swim coach standing at the edge of the pool with a stopwatch, calling out times and corrections. But to swimmers in the water, a coach is much more than that.

  Coach Bridget hasn't had much experience at the head coach position, but she's been around the Bloomsburg for a while. She started as a collegiate swimmer at Bloomsburg, she decided to become an assistant coach, and the now the head coach at Bloomsburg University. 

  Coach Bridget is much different compared to other swim coaches. She cares so much about her swimmers in and out of the pool. At swim meets you can find her running up and down the pool deck with a stopwatch and a clipboard. She wears her Bloomsburg swim gear, as well as her wet white sneakers, screaming and losing her voice while she cheers on her swimmers. No matter what the results are, she is proud of the effort her swimmers put into the water day in, and day out.

   Bridget shows her appreciation to her swimmers by gifting them charms before and after every swim meet. She says, "one of my favorite traditions I do as a coach is give charms out to my swimmers. These charms represent the teams we have faced and the challenges we have faced. Reminding us of the hard work and unity it took to get through each meet." Each charm becomes a small reminder of teams’ progress, carrying the story of every meet the team has pushed through together.

  Inside the pool swimmers see her as a leader and role model, someone who pushes them through exhausting sets, corrects their technique, and demands their best effort at every single practice.  They may hear tough feedback or feel pressure to push outside their comfort zone in practice, but they understand it comes from a place of belief in their potential. Outside the pool, swimmers see Coach Bridget as a kind of mother figure. She will ask her fellow swimmers about how school is going for them and making sure her athletes are doing ok mentally and emotionally. 

  Coach Bridget’s influence reaches far beyond the lanes of the pool. In a sport built on discipline, time management, and responsibility, she reminds her swimmers that they are more than their times on a clock. They are a team, family, and a great group of individuals in which she believes in them with complete confidence.