"When I was a lot younger..."

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When I was in graduate school oh-so-many years ago, I had a professor who had been an extremely successful HS basketball coach. Coach Ladner often shared his coaching philosophies with us grad students, and one of these he shared this way:

"I treat my athletes like family. I tell them, 'Once my boy, -always- my boy.' "

With coed athletes, we would say, "Once my kid, always my kid."

A coaching friend of mine has a blog with a "Quote of the Day" feature, so springboarding from Coach Ladner's philosophy above, I am going to steal from it today, the quote coming from the author of that great American classic, Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne:

If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together...
there is something you must always remember.
You are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.

But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...
I'll always be with you.



Alan Alexander "A.A." Milne

The coach-athlete bond can be a strong one. I'm still close to my college coach, who got me started in the swim coaching world. The athlete-athlete bond is also strong. I've picked up the phone and called a college teammate from 40 years ago whom I haven't spoken with -since- college, and it was just like we were chatting after a typical practice.

I've always felt our sport and our training groups are a lot like family, and I've heard that from more than a few swimmers and parents, too.

Our staff also feels a lot like family to me. Three of our coaching staff used to swim for me at KHS, two others I knew of as swimmers at THS and CRHS, and another I knew for more than 10 years as an outstanding fellow coach at Cy-Falls HS. It's pretty "neat."

Katy Aquatics is a great program with great leadership and coaches and a great "family feel." I hope you enjoy and appreciate the efforts that are being made to elevate us to the next level. It's a full team effort: coaches, board, swimmers, parents. We are indeed fortunate. Oo-rah!

See you at the Picnic!