Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
With the short-course swim season behind her, Sweet Home Swim Club Coach Shawnna Richards is about to take her team into the long-course swim season.
Richards was assistant coach under Jill Black, she said. When Black left to take a coaching job in Springfield, Richards stepped in as head coach in October.
“My kids already were swimming,” said Richards, 41. She has experience as a high school coach and as a lifeguard from age 16 through college.
“Swimming’s been a big part of my life,” Richards said.
When Renee Kirkland left the team to take another job in 2004, Black came on as coach and Richards began assisting.
“She (Black) kind of gave me the confidence I needed to do this job,” Richards said.
Richards came to Sweet Home from Michigan 13 years ago, she said.
“I have three jobs. I do billing for a dentist in Eugene. I home-school my kids. I coach, and then teach a high school group (history and science for home schoolers) on Mondays in Brownsville.”
Richards received her nursing degree from Henry Ford Community College, but she never went into nursing, she said, adding that the emotional part of the job was too much for her. Instead, she went to work for Ford Motor Credit.
Richards is married to Bill Richards, who works for Hewlett Packard. They have two children, Ryan, 10, and Kristin, 7, and have been married for 18 years.
“The people I ran around with were all swimmers,” she said. “It’s a good sport. For kids, it’s not only fun, it’s a learning experience.”
The sport is team-oriented, but it also is an individual sport, in which swimmers compete with themselves for better times, Richards said. It’s a year-round sport with no beginning or end.
Swimmers can stop and play other sports, and then they can go back to work where they left off in swimming, she said. Some of them can play other sports and still keep swimming.
The swim club goes through two competitive seasons each year, a short-course season and a long-course season, she said.
The swim club had about 15 participants last year, Richards said. During the year, the club has grown to 36 swimmers.
To join the swim club, children should be able to swim the full length of the pool using backstroke and freestyle.
The new season starts in April.
Jen and Bruce Davis are assisting Richards. Both have strong swimming backgrounds and swam at the University of Kansas. Bruce Davis holds a number of Sweet Home High School swimming records.
For more information or to sign up, call Richards at 367-5178.