As somebody who has been involved with swimming at WHS for 13 years, Andy Gathy knows a thing or two about the sport.
Gathy is the current assistant coach of the WHS girls and boys swim teams and the head coach at CLMS.
Gathy has had all three of his daughters participate in swimming at WHS, which is one of the reasons he became interested in coaching in the first place. He said, “I wanted to know how to help them get better.” He purchased books on swimming and coaching techniques to become more familiar with the sport. Additionally, upon recommendation from the head coach of his daughter’s club team, he trained to become an official and officiated at swim meets for four years. This volunteer work helped Gathy learn the technicality of swimming
In 1986, when Gathy was in college, he coached youth football in Waterford for 10 years. He was a football player at WPI and enjoyed coaching the sport. He volunteered at this position for 10 years, eventually becoming head coach when he graduated college and becoming president of the league.
When Gathy’s middle daughter, Elyse, was going into middle school, he noticed that the school’s swim program was weak, so he began to help the high school coach in the hopes that the program would be available for his two youngest daughters. Eventually, the head coach wanted to spend more time with his kids and asked Gathy if he could become the head coach of the CLMS swim team in 2018.
When Gathy’s daughters were on the WHS swim team, he helped with their Saturday morning practices.
In 2022, the head coach of the girls’ team was asked to step down. Gathy became the assistant coach along with the previous diving coach, Kenny Pancoast, as the head coach. They had a successful season, due to Gathy’s program that “trained them to build their endurance better…Trained them for speed instead of just swimming lots of distance.” Because of this, the girls had a successful season, with one of the swimmers, Julia Gathy, taking first place at the ECC Championships in the 200 freestyle.
The following year, in 2023 a new head coach was appointed, Amy Poulton, and he was kept on as an assistant coach to the team.
Lauren Gerboth, a senior at WHS said, “Coach Gathy has always encouraged me to push past my limits. Whenever I think I can’t do something, he brings a positive attitude, humor, and mindset that forces me to believe in myself.”
That same year, the boys swim team at WHS lost both of their coaches. This loss caused a majority of the boys on the team to leave, so when Poulton and Gathy became the coaches, along with diving coach Vanessa Townsend , Gathy made it a goal to get a majority of the team back. He knew a lot of the boys since he coached them in middle school, which helped him get them to rejoin the team. Arthur D’Hervilly, a junior at WHS said, “He made the swim team know that, win or lose, it was our own individual times that mattered.”
There were many challenges coaching the middle school team, including the size of the roster. According to Gathy,“the middle school team has 30-40 kids while on the girls team, 20 is considered a lot and the boys team is lucky to get 12.” There are a lot of kids to handle, considering the large disparity of skill level between swimmers.
Gathy bridged the two programs. “What I have learned to do is to encourage the high schoolers to volunteer at the middle school. This enables a better ratio of coach to swimmer.” Gathy worries that the lack of requirement of LTS hours for graduation will make it difficult to maintain the program because of lack of help.
In the 2023-2024 season, the middle school placed second in the state championship, higher than any Waterford swim team has placed in their respective state championships. When asked to remark on her middle school swim experience, freshman Aubrey Tucker said,“I have been a swimmer for a long time, so I have had many coaches. Coach Gathy has been one of my favorites. He creates a practice environment that inspires all members of the team to try their best.”
Gathy said, “My full-time job is a patent attorney, which is basically coaching of a different sort.” He says that being a coach is a technical job and understanding the technical details of the sport helps him be a good coach. He says, “if you want to become a coach, you want to be somebody who wants to help other people out.” He has always enjoyed coaching and helping people. Senior Alex Startz has said, “He truly cares and has passion for the sport…He’s been an inspiration to my own swimming career, and I hope he knows that.”
Gathy says, “If you have an interest in helping other people and have an interest in sports, step up and do it, because there is always a shortage of coaches and there’s plenty of kids out there that need coaching.”
