Family

Olympian Michael Phelps may be the poster boy for swimming in the state of Maryland, but he’s not alone in the quest to promote its virtues. The fact is, there’s a rather ambitious swimming coach from Dahlgren, Virginia, in town who is up to his goggles doing the very same thing.

 

“It was a very exciting opportunity for me when I was asked to come to this area of the Eastern Shore and establish Coastal Aquatics,” said Craig Clift, who is the head coach of the Princess Anne-based swim club. “I’ve always wanted to introduce my sport to a brand-new area and just build things my way from the ground up.”

 

A former nationally ranked swimmer who was named team MVP each of his four scholarship years at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Clift dove into the creation and implementation of the program with both feet – and started getting results virtually immediately.

 

In the club’s first year, with only six competing swimmers and no relay entries, Clift’s squad placed an incredible 14th for the entire state of Maryland. Additionally, Clift’s inspirational coaching and technical wizardry have crafted a field of over a dozen swimmers at Coastal Aquatics who are currently ranked among the top 10 in the state in their divisions, including people like 12-year-old Maggie Hobbs, who specializes in individual medleys and freestyle sprints, and 16-year-old Rodney Fentress, a distance swimmer who Clift feels has an especially bright future in the sport.

 

“As far as I’m concerned, Rodney has what it takes to go far in this sport,” praised Clift, “and I’m really pleased and proud that he moved up here to train with me. With lots of continued focus and hard work, I can easily see him competing at Nationals or the Olympic trials.”

 

But for all the success that the club has enjoyed even in its infancy, there are rewards to be had that resonate on an even deeper level.

 

“Swimming for Coastal Aquatics has been an extremely positive experience for my daughter and our family,” said Amy Porter, whose daughter, Ryane, is one of the club’s relay recordholders. “My husband and I have seen our daughter become more responsible and her confidence build. She has grown more passionate about swimming and about being fit and healthy. We have been so blessed to be a part of such a supportive team.”

 

Fentress agrees. “Coach Craig emphasizes team above individuals,” said the state of Maryland’s top-ranked swimmer in the 500 and 1,000 freestyle categories. “He preaches that you must be a leader by example, that you must always make the right choice, that you should always respect yourself and others and be a great sportsman, and that you should always thank your teammates for helping you reach your goals.”

 

The team at Coastal Aquatics really rang in the new year in grand style by earning Level 1 credentials as a USA swim club for 2010 – an enormous accomplishment in the industry because of its rigorous qualification requirements in areas such as coaching, facilities, athletes, programming and more.

 

But Clift – who in the summer of 2009 was named a head coach representing the state of Maryland at the Long Course Eastern Zone championships – is certainly not one to rest on his laurels, so just as sure as Moby Dick had a big blowhole, so will Coastal Aquatics make an even bigger splash in the future.

 

“I have set many concrete goals for this program,” shared Clift, “but if I were to distill them all down to three main ones, it would be these:

 

“First, grow our current 45-member program to 250 within four or five years’ time. Second, diversify the program beyond the 7-18 age range to include people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, including the addition of a masters’ program and a variety of lessons and clinics for the entire community in something like two to three years.

 

“Third, within two to three years I’d like to have a full-fledged high school swimming program going that competes with other high schools on a regional level – one that can be used as a launchpad for things like college scholarships and maybe even Olympic qualification. That would be especially great because if there’s one thing I’m really good at, it’s placing athletes in college programs, and I would love to be able to do that for the kids in this area.

 

One area kid for whom that task will no doubt be especially smooth sailing is Clift’s own daughter, Summer, who not only currently holds all but two club records in the 13-14 girls’ division but also retains 12 club records in 17 individual events for the 11-12 girls’ division. They say that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Perhaps they don’t float too far either.

 

“That’s one of the really great things about swimming as a sport,” continued Clift, who, at ages 9 and 10, was considered one of the best swimmers in the United States in every event. “A college or university is either D1, D2 or D3, which basically means that anyone who wants to swim competitively in college can do so if he or she chooses schools intelligently. So, anyone who wants to be able to say legitimately that he or she was a college athlete can do so if they choose swimming as the means.”

 

 

 

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