Scott Swanson
Four years ago, Jake Johnson did not see himself coaching elite swimmers at the Sweet Home pool.
That would be back when he was churning through the water himself, under the eagle eye of veteran Sweet Home High School Coach Doug Peargin.
Fast forward to the present and there’s Johnson, 22, on the pool deck, supervising an intense workout for a group of swimmers who could all be swimming in college in a few years.
“It’s been really exciting,” he said. “But I like to learn.”
Johnson, a 2012 Sweet Home High School graduate, took over as Sweet Home Swim Club’s head coach in September for Junia Calhoon, who had guided the club for 10 years.
He inherited a group of 30-some youngsters, including the ones he’s primarily responsible for coaching: the Platinum swimmers, 13- to 17-year-olds who have posted “A” times, putting them among the top age-group swimmers in the state.
The list reads like a Who’s Who of state swimming: Jessica Coates, Lucie and Mia Davis, Megan Hager, Sara and Elea Hewitt, and Lauren Yon on the girls side, and Nathan Hager, Rowland and Rawlins Lupoli, and Brandon Vasfaret on the boys. All already are or are expected to be state medal winners in high school.
Lucie Davis, going into her junior year, is a two-time 4A/3A/2A/1A division state champion in two distances and is the first girl from the Sweet Home club to qualify for the junior nationals since Leah Lamb in 1985. Davis will swim in Austin, Texas, beginning Dec. 9, competing in the 200, 500 and 1650 meters.
Johnson spends three hours a day, Monday through Friday, and two hours on Saturdays coaching his swimmers.
“They’re intense,” he said.
He described his charges as “highly energetic kids who absolutely love to swim, even though they won’t admit it.
“There’s no way they could do what they’re doing if they didn’t love it.”
Angie Yon coaches the lower-level older swimmers, who swim trimmed-down versions of the Platinum training routines, and Jen Davis, a former Division I college swimmer, handles the beginners.
After arriving in Sweet Home as a seventh-grader with his mother, who moved here to care for Johnson’s grandmother, he got involved in sports when he entered high school, playing soccer for one season, then water polo, and swimming and competing in track and field for four years.
“I dove right in,” he said.
He felt drawn to athletics in which there wasn’t coaches’ subjective decisions on who would compete, he said.
“I liked sports where there was no restrictions on athletes competing, where everybody has a chance. Everybody is allowed to do something.”
Johnson knows what it takes to reach excellence, as he willed himself to a state berth in swimming as a senior in the 200 Individual Medley through sheer hard work, without any club experience.
He was legendary among teammates and coaches for his work ethic, getting off the bus late at night following track meets and heading for the discus ring to fine-tune his form in the dark of the night.
“He’s one of the hardest workers we ever had,” said Billy Snow, who was head track coach at the time. “I was always afraid of him overworking. He might have thrown all night long if we’d let him. He’d be down there on the weekends, throwing. I was afraid he’d pick up bad habits because nobody was down there with him.”
Johnson won two district titles in the discus, and, Snow said, didn’t hesitate to step up in other events when needed.
“He always had a good attitude. He became a good thrower because he worked hard. He had the attitude and the work ethic.”
His associates emphasize that Johnson is no self-promoter, which explains why he was working at the swimming pool as a lifeguard and teaching swim lessons when Calhoon approached him about helping out with the swim club.
“She said they needed an adaptive coach for the little ones,” he said. “She said I had the personality, that I would love coaching. She could see me doing it a while.”
He bit, and then things progressed.
Calhoon announced she was going to step down and the club directors were “going through a lot of applicants for head coach,” Johnson said.
“Junia pulled me aside and told me it would be really good experience for me to be head coach. She would help me.”
Calhoon said she saw a win-win for both the club and the new coach, who would be taking over a small, but very successful program.
“It just made sense,” Calhoon said, noting that the club wasn’t in the financial position to hire an established coach.
“Being a hometown boy, he understands the background of swimming in Sweet Home, being part of it himself. He’s starting a career in the coaching realm. It’s a great start for him.”
So far, so good, Johnson and others say.
“He’s doing fine,” said club Vice President Bruce Davis, who also swam at the Division I level in college and qualified for junior nationals out of the Sweet Home club in 1985.
“The kids are swimming well. He’s learning, he’s progressing.
“He’s definitely a rookie coach. He’s very driven. He’s doing a good job. He’s got a lot to learn, but we knew that when we hired him. It’s tough. The hard part is he’s coming in with the high expectations swimmers have of themselves, stepping into a program with very motivated people.”
Johnson acknowledged that the learning curve has been high.
“It’s been a struggle,” he said. “I have the club board behind me and I have weekly to two-week meetings to make sure everything’s going correctly.”
He’s also been in “constant contact” with Calhoon.
“We talk about meet results and I’ve just been following her training program,” he said. “She gives me little critiques here and there for what they could be working on, currently.”
He said his focus is on turning out quality people, rather than just winners.
“I’m trying to get them mentally tough, because that’s just good for them in life in general,” he said. “If you can do a terrible workout, you can accept those consequences in real life.
“I want them to find their limitations, understand them and break through them. I want them to walk away from the club as a better person, not just a better swimmer.”
“I just have to make sure I’m performing well enough that the kids succeed. It’s all about the kids.”