Once the 2012 girls swimming season comes to an end, head coach Marsha Dahl will be resigning after 25 years of coaching. Although she will still coach the boys swim team, she officially announced her resignation on Nov. 27.
“The main reason is that my brother had a life threatening medical issue this fall about halfway into the season and you know, it just gets you thinking about the time that you do things and the things that you miss out on,” Dahl said.
She has thought about this decision for a few years and because of recent events she has officially decided to resign.
“I kind of knew it was coming,” Curt Jones said. “We had talked several times during the season, and she has actually been thinking about resigning as a girls coach for a few years. This year just kind of came to the final year where she thought it was best to step away from it.”
Along with family issues, other factors building up to Dahl’s resignation were little issues such as coaching two teams throughout the year and still trying to keep up with her family. She had also recently had an epiphany that something had to give soon.
“I have a friend in Jamestown that has coached one of the swim teams for 40 years straight from the time she graduated from college and got a job in Jamestown,” Dahl said. “I thought, ‘There’s no way I could make it that long. It’s a big time commitment.’”
Once Jones heard the news of Dahl’s resignation, he had reflected on her time spent with the swim teams.
“I am very thankful and grateful that we have had someone of Marsha’s caliber to be coaching our girls swim program,” Jones said. “But I know that she has a job at the pool and she was able to do two head coaching programs and having pretty good success at both through the years has been amazing.”
After realizing that she could no longer keep up with the demands of coaching two swim teams, Dahl was quick to make a plan for the future swimming seasons.
“Well we want to get the winter season started, get through Christmas here then we’ll probably put some advertisements out there for hiring a new head coach for the girls,” Jones said. “We hope to have somebody in by springtime before summer hits.”
The news of a new coach has hit the girls team hard because the swimmers have only known swimming with Dahl as their coach, but junior Julissa Johnson has high hopes for the new coach.
“I think it’s going to be a big change with the new coach, but change is good so hopefully something great will come out of it,” Johnson said.
Not only is Johnson excited to see the future of the girls swim team, Dahl hopes that her swimmers will live up to their full potential.
“The girls team in the next few years is going to keep getting better and better,” Dahl said. “I wish the next person that they hire the best of luck in coaching those girls because they’re dynamite group of kids.”