BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Diving into swim coaching

By Anastasia Rubio, age 16 and Laine Lohfink, age 17 | March 27, 2022

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IF YOU TEACH A KID TO SWIM Memorial High School juniors Anastasia Rubio (left) and Laine Lohfink (right) went from swimming on summer league swim teams to coaching them.

Growing up, every summer we always looked forward to summer league swim team season. Now that we are older and can coach, we’ve gotten a whole new perspective.

Anastasia: This summer, I coached at Houston Country Club. Swimming has always been a passion and a big part of my summer. Now, being a member of the Memorial Varsity swim team, it is super meaningful to carry over my knowledge to young aspiring swimmers. I dealt with most age groups at HCC, but mostly coached the 6 and under age group. This was especially fun because of their enthusiasm and curiosity to learn and improve. They are so excited about everything and show how joyful you can make simple things.

From practice to meets, I would have to keep them in line along with my coworkers, which taught me great time management and communication skills. We also provided them with small incentives such as lollipops after practice and face painting before meets. These kids are very special and remind me every day to always be joyful and curious to learn new things.

Laine: This summer, I coached the 6 and under and 7-8 year old divisions at the Memorial Forest Club. I will never forget showing up on the first day of the season and looking down at all those wide eyes anxiously waiting to get in the water and out of the cold weather. We spent about the first five weeks having practice then we started having meets.

It was at that first meet that I realized how much I truly loved working with kids and developing relationships with them. I will never forget at our final regular season meet, as I was getting ready to swim butterfly – which is not my strongest stroke – I looked over and saw two of my second graders right on the side of the pool eagerly waiting to watch me swim. As soon as I got out, they both ran up to congratulate me just as I had done for them earlier in the meet. I’m counting down the days until swim team starts and I can create more memories.

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