New Makos Coach brings it all to Morgan Hill Swim Club
By Leann Shea
Morgan Hill – Even on a dark, wet, dreary day new Makos head coach Mark Scott can be found beside the pool at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center coaching and training members of the Morgan Hill Swim Club.
Scott has been involved in swimming nearly all of his life, as he started competitively swimming at the tender age of 5. Scott’s parents managed a swim and tennis club with his mother teaching swimming classes and his father coaching the city team in Wenatchee, Wash. Scott, who doesn’t competitively swim any more, is entering his 20th year of coaching and is ecstatic to be with the Morgan Hill team.
“Even on the really challenging days, it feels like I’m doing something worth while,” said Scott. “It’s a beautiful sport, there’s a lot of power and grace and beauty. I’ve always been attracted to it.”
Scott was attracted to the Morgan Hill job because he enjoys the area and was a bit tired of living out in the fog of the Monterey coast in Aptos.
“I like this area a lot,” said Scott, pausing to bark orders at the swimmers working out at the Morgan Hill Aquatics Center on Thursday night. “I think this is a tremendous area and the growth potential is unlimited. It’s a good opportunity to do what I’m good at, do what I love.”
Scott brings an eclectic coaching style to swimming and stresses the team aspect of a sport that is often seen as an individual activity. He also weaves in martial art teachings from his training in Judo and Jujitsu into his team’s swimming training and conditioning. Martial arts also helped him develop self awareness and to love the sport he was involved in and the team aspect of an apparently individual sport.
“When I was doing martial arts, I stepped into a program being taught by an 82-year-old seventh degree black belt,” said Scott who took about a five year break from competitive swimming and coaching while in college. “He worked on our awareness and where we were coming from. He also found ways to work on our love for the sport and work on the arts part of it instead of the martial part of it.”
For the most part, however, it is pacing besides the pool; a home away from home. In January Scott will have the team begin work in the weight room as another aspect to their training.
“It is hard to tell yet what kind of difference his coaching style will make,” said Makos team member Katie Rick.
