Coach Whildin was a force to be reckoned with.  Everyone knew who Coach was, but few really knew her.  Coach Whildin was tough, but only as tough as she needed to be.  She knew the limits of each of her swimmers.  One of her favorite sayings was “Get comfortable being uncomfortable”.  She had high standards for all of us, and she made us want to reach them.  She knew just how far we could go, and she made sure we knew she was going to push us to get there.  One of the many amazing things about Coach Whildin was her ability be a realist.  She didn’t have pipe dreams that her swimmers couldn’t live up to.  She knew the difference between those who had the ability to become champions and those who had the ability to become good swimmers.  She would never set your bar above where she knew you could reach; but she always set the bar higher than you thought you could reach.  She didn’t demand the impossible, but the incredible.  She demanded excellence, never allowing her swimmers to quit on themselves.  She made you test the boundaries of what you thought you could accomplish.  She knew she had high standards, but she knew every one of us could reach them if we worked hard.

Coach embodied the characteristics she wanted to instill in her swimmers: discipline, determination, dedication.  She poured her heart and soul into her teams and her swimmers.  She showed up early and stayed late to pore over meet results in the paper.  She meticulously created winning line-ups.  She taught her swimmers the definition of dedication.  She expected it and she expected us to expect it of each other. 

One of her main theories of swimming was the teamwork behind being on a swim team.  As much as swimming is considered an individual sport, she focused on the team.  She would always do what was in the best interest of the team as a whole.  She knew individual goals were important, but in the big picture of life, you wouldn’t get far without the rest of your team.  Over the years she coached hundreds of swimmers.  From swimmers who had never swum a lap in their life, to Olympic world champions.  She knew that a team was only as strong as its weakest link.  She worked on the strongest swimmers as much as the weakest swimmers.  On Coach Whildin’s teams, there was a place and a purpose for every swimmer. 

Her passion for swimming was immeasurable.  She always said that swimming was one of the most important things you could learn to do in life.  It was okay if you never became a world champion, because you were learning a skill that would carry you through your entire life.  She made sure we knew that swimming wasn’t the only thing we took with us out into the world.  She made sure we knew what success was, and how to be a humble winner.  She ensured we knew how to handle failure and come back twice as strong next time.   She drilled into us that a team is what moves you forward.  She taught us that dedication and hard work pay off.  Even if sometimes it doesn’t always get you the immediate result you want, but it will get you to where you want to go.  She taught us that perseverance is one of the most important things you can learn in life.

Some may say that Coach Whildin didn’t have children, but they would be wrong, she had hundreds of KIDS.  She measured her success by the success of her swimmers; not by our ability to land great jobs and make lots of money, but by our ability to be good people.  Much in the same way a parent might measure their success as a parent by how their children turn out.  She loved each of us as her own and wanted, above all, for us to be good people and to do well in the world.  She wanted the world to be better place because we were in it, but it’s truly a better place because she was in it.  She taught us how to be the best versions of ourselves.  Many people are asked what they want their legacy to be.  She never would’ve answered that question, but internally she defined her legacy by those she coached.  She hoped she instilled in us the qualities to be good people.  A person’s legacy can be defined as planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.  How would one describe the positive legacy Coach Whildin left behind?  Not because her swimmers have gone on to become successful doctors, nurses, teachers, business people, and parents, but because we have gone on to instill those qualities that she held so dear in our children and in how we live our lives.  Coach Whildin planted the seeds of hard work, determination, commitment, and discipline in all of her swimmers and while she is no longer here to see the fruits of her labor, her legacy lives on in all who knew her.

Coach Whildin was the cornerstone of Northampton swimming.  She built the KIDS swimming program as well as the Learn to Swim program and coached the junior high and high school teams during most of her tenure at Northampton.  She has impacted swimmers from the age of 3 through adulthood.  She was the face of Northampton swimming, in all its facets, for over 3 decades and only took a break when her medical needs called for it.  Naming the Northampton Middle School swimming pool, the “Gwen L. Whildin Natatorium” is just one piece of her legacy that we can continue to pass on to younger generations.  When young swimmers ask about her, we can continue to teach them the qualities she found so important to swimming and life.

Thank You,

Former Swimmers, Coaches, Students, and Friends & Family