Just try and keep the Wright family from talking about swimming.
Well, maybe not Brian, who is a freshman at Kentwood High this year. He prefers water polo but he’ll be on the boys swim team come winter sports season.
His parents, Sharon and Dave, are swim coaches. Their eldest child Erica is a senior at Kentwood. Her mom has been her high school coach for the past three years while Dave is in his fourth year coaching the Tahoma girls swim and dive team.
It should come as no surprise that the family spends a lot of time talking about swimming.
“We always talk swimming at home,” Dave said. “Erica loves that.”
Sharon said that swim speak is just part of the family dynamic, it’s discussed before the season, during, and after.
Erica said, “I do enjoy it just because it’s fun to hear them talk about it. We talk swimming for a little while, then we start dinner, and they talk about their day.”
Swimming has always been a part of the relationship for Sharon and Dave Wright. The pair met at Central Washington University when Dave was a senior and Sharon was a sophomore. They swam together for a year, Dave explained, and started dating later.
When Erica was just a baby, Dave was coaching at Kentridge where he also taught math, while Sharon was coaching at Kent-Meridian.
The local paper did a story about the family, Sharon said, even taking a photo of them at the pool.
Sharon stepped away from coaching for a while. Four years ago she got a job at Kentwood as a guidance counselor.
“There were no openings in the (swim) coaching staff at that point,” she said. “Erica’s sophomore year both (boys and girls swim) jobs were opening, so, I jumped at them. It gave me an opportunity to create my Kentwood boys team before Brian starts.”
That is one downside about the timing, Sharon added, that now in her third year she feels like the Kentwood girls team is hers now but with Erica’s high swimming career coming to a close this fall it wasn’t exactly what Sharon had hoped for.
Still, Erica is glad she’s competed for her mom for three years.
“It’s bittersweet because there are times when she’s the greatest coach,” Erica said. “Then there are times when I don’t want her to be my mom and my coach. So, it’s a different dynamic at home. She’s a great coach.”
Plus it’s pretty convenient, Erica said, because if she wants to talk to her mom about something she doesn’t have to wait until swim practice the next day.
For Sharon, she knows there are times to be Erica’s coach and times to be her mom.
“It has its ups and downs just like parenting,” Sharon said. “There’s immense joy when she does well and there’s frustration (when she’s not). We’ve worked the past three years on mom versus coach.”
On Tuesday, Tahoma competed against Kentwood at Kent-Meridian Pool. It was the last regular season dual meet for both teams and it was also the day for seniors on the Conquerors squad to be recognized. Sharon was happy Dave got to be there for that since they are in the same division they rarely compete in the same pool on the same days.
“I came in here with the same passion, one I love my girls, and two, it’s my daughter’s team, so I want it to be a good experience for her,” Sharon said. “Yeah, it’s a family affair.”
But, Erica was one of 11 seniors to be recognized, Sharon explained. So, in many ways she was recognizing not just her own daughter but adopted children.
“It’s going to be bittersweet,” Sharon said before the meet. “My mantra has been the Dr. Seuss quote, ‘Don’t be sad it’s over. Be glad it happened.’ I have 11 seniors. Some of them I’ve known since they were 3 years old. I’ve watched them grow up.”
There were moments leading up to the meet where Sharon would get a little misty eyed, but, she would simply remind herself this was about the swimmers and not her.
For Dave, though during the regular season he hasn’t seen Erica swim on a regular basis, he has been fortunate to be on the pool deck at league, district and state over the years.
“How many dads get to be on deck to watch their kids swim? It’s cool to watch her talk to Sharon then watch her walk across the pool deck to talk to me and say, “Dad, what did you think?’” he said. “This is the end of one thing and the start of the next thing. I’m just excited for the next cool thing (Erica will) be doing.”
Erica has appreciated the times her dad was there to watch her swim but said she knew she could count on his coaching skills to give her a second opinion even if he wasn’t there.
“It’s good because I do go home and tell him about my times and he asks about my splits,” she said. “He’ll critique me at every meet I’ve been to with him. It’s good to have that second voice… beside my mom’s.”
It’s only October and there’s still quite a bit of swimming to do.
“It hasn’t really hit me yet that this is my last dual meet with Kentwood,” Erica said. “I thought it was good. I’m happy to be able to do this with girls I’ve met because of my dad.”
And to think, Erica fought against the idea of swimming, though Dave explains that as parents they never pushed her into it.
“I ended up trying every other sport but I always came back to swimming,” Erica said. “My parents sat me down (before ninth grade) and said, ‘If you want to play volleyball, whatever you want to do, we’ll support you.’ It was a really hard decision.”
She weighed the pros and cons, talked it over with her mom about the likelihood of playing varsity volleyball for Kentwood, and decided she could go further with swimming.
“I’m glad I chose swimming,” Erica said.
But, now comes another tough choice for the senior: go to Pacific Lutheran University or Montana State University while pursuing her interest in photography and trying to see if she can keep swimming in college.
She has some time, though, to consider.
Whatever her choice, her parents will still be coaching swimming, at least for a while and the Wrights will continue to talk about swimming all year round. They wouldn’t have it any other way.
