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The backbone of the Waynesboro YMCA SMAC swimming program

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SMACWhen Bill Nicholson was brought on as the director of competitive swimming for the Waynesboro YMCA SMAC program last summer, his first order of business was fleshing out his staff.

“The assistants are the backbone of this program,” said Nicholson, who came to SMAC after 15 years as the head coach of the swim program at VMI.

Nicholson gives his assistant coaches the freedom to run their individual programs the way they want, a different approach than what you might see elsewhere in the world of competitive swimming.

For Stephanie Neal, a former SMAC swimmer who has been working with the Junior Gold and Elite swimmers since Nicholson took over the SMAC program last June, that approach is a breath of fresh air for her as a coach.

“I’ve worked under different head coaches, and everybody has a different style. I love how Bill is so flexible in terms of letting me run the groups the way that I feel is best and preparing them to move to the senior groups when they’re ready,” Neal said.

“I learned a lot working under other coaches who had different approaches, but I really enjoy what we’re doing here now,” Neal said.

Ellie Gathright has worked with the swim program at the YMCA for more than 30 years. Under Nicholson, she works with the 6- to 9-year-olds, focusing on the basics, “technique, making sure their strokes are correct.”

For Gathright, the progress of her young swimmers can come really quickly once they get the technical part of swimming down.

“It’s the best thing, to see them in practice, and then to see them in a meet, and see their hard work paying off,” Gathright said.

Greg Harris joined the staff this spring as a developmental swim coach. Another former SMAC swimmer from his youth and teen years, Harris has been a competitive masters-level swimmer since 2011, posting 80 national top-10 times and nine world top-10 times in the past seven years.

As a coach, Harris focuses on stroke development, “trying to improve their efficiency in the pool.”

“There are some days where you don’t see lots of improvements, and there’s other days where they’re focused, really paying attention, and you can see tremendous improvements in a single workout. It all comes together,” Harris said. “We all have our days where we’re focused and not focused. I’m just looking forward to see things go from here. I really enjoy working with these kids.”

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