Saturday, August 26th will be the 7th Annual Tim Daly invitational hosted by Mound Westonka/Holy Family. It may seem like just another “first meet of the season”, but the meaning goes much deeper for me. Tim Daly was my high school coach and one of the most influential people in my life. I could write pages on his accomplishments as a coach, but I’d rather share his greatest accomplishment. Creating great humans year after year after year. Many of the lessons he taught me personally are at the core of my coaching philosophy.
First, the lesson that no matter how good you are, the team is more important. Everyone is special in their own way, but nothing is more special than the team itself and the team is everyone. Slowest, fastest, oldest, youngest, loudest, and quietest. We all move forward together, and nobody ever is excluded or left behind. If you are one of the unfortunate ones that tell me swimming is an individual sport, you know how I feel about this 😊
The second lesson is that you must get knocked down some to learn how to get back up. Tim’s teams always had a certain toughness to them. He was a master at putting you in controlled situation where failure was the most likely outcome and the first to be there, followed by the rest of the team, to help you learn how to pick yourself back up from it and get after it again. It was a hallmark of our practices and many of our meets. I hear the phase “failure is not an option” and think Tim’s version was failure is essential.
The third was practice is everything. Every little thing you do in practice will show up in a meet. Your turn’s, your attitude, your planning, how you approach challenges, how you finish, and how you work as a team. All important in practice, all important every day. In the moment, you would see him as demanding, difficult to please and relentless. In hindsight, he was just preparing you for success and creating the ability to perform your best when it counted.
The final one I will share, but certainly not the last, is to take time to celebrate successes. Not just the big one’s that come with medals or trophies, but the all the one’s that led up to that. Making a tough interval on a set, keeping up with someone faster than you in practice, getting a compliment on how classy your team is. Celebrate those because they matter as much, if not more, than the others.
Tim Daly was a giant in the coaching world and not because of his wins or championships, but because he cared about you as a person deeply. If you knew him, you miss him being around the pool and feeling his love for the sport and all the people in it. I’m proud to be able to participate in a meet that bears his name and highlights his contributions to the sport.