Former Jersey Shore Swimmer Reflects on Impact of Swimming

Everybody has life experiences.  Good or bad, they make you who you are today.   Dave Sheets, Duquesne University Swimming Coach and Jersey Shore High School graduate reflects on the impact that local swimming had on him.  Below are his thoughts.

This past week I watched the video of the Jersey Shore High School Board Meeting from April 11th, 2011 and began to recognize the difficult decisions that all board members are making regarding the budget cuts proposed by the governor. Although cuts need to be made I hope the board members understand how the entire high school experience affects who we are, and who we become.

I was not the best student in high school. If you asked any of my teachers they would say I was average/above average at best. It took a while for me to realize the importance of how education fits into our success…I can thank swimming for that. Aside from what my parents taught me, I learned many valuable life lessons every day at swim team practice in the high school pool. It discouraged me as I watched the board meeting and listened to the ideas regarding closing the pool. The money saved could help pay for one or more teachers in the school district. More teachers are always better, if they are good ones. However, calling the pool a luxury and not a necessity is like telling students that math and the sciences are not important. It was obvious this board member never swam competitively or experienced why the pool is essential. Why do I feel the pool or any pools in the area are a necessity? For me, my family (my nephews compete for the Jersey Shore YMCA swim team) and many of my former team mates, the swimming experience at Jersey Shore taught us more about life than any class room experience could have done.


At four years of age my parent’s decided to place my brother Scott and me in swimming lessons at the Jersey Shore Borough Pool. After the first lesson I fell in love with the water. Our instructor, Cathy Packard, suggested we join the swim team. Scott was six and a much stronger swimmer. For us to join the team we needed to complete one full lap of the pool without stopping. My brother did it no problem. I, on the other hand, struggled to complete the lap…with a few dog paddles here and there, my brothers (I have three) encouraging me, I made it and had the privilege to join the team. First life lesson swimming taught me (If you want something bad enough you have to work for it….don’t quit). I was not about to allow my brother to be on the team and not me, after all brothers compete against each other.

Fast forward four years……I was now swimming for the Lock Haven YMCA (Jersey Shore did not have an indoor pool at the time). So my parent’s, especially my mother, along with other families, made the 20 mile round trip every night to make sure we were at practice. It was the end of the season awards banquet. My brother Scott got an award for most improved in our age group. I cried….I felt if Scott got an award then I deserved one too. Second life lesson swimming taught me (life is not always fair……how we deal with our disappointments as well as our achievements help shape who we are and who we become). Although I did not receive an award that night, my love for swimming continued to grow.

My brothers and I spent uncounted summers at the Jersey Shore Borough Pool “swimming” our summers away. We would get there for swim practice in the mornings (11 AM) and stay until the next break for practice (5 PM). If we were lucky enough and the weather was great we would stay until the pool closed at 8 PM that night. This was the cycle we and many of our friends enjoyed season upon season. I remember block tag with Steve Moyer, Richelle Barlet, Jen Eck, the Bartos, the Millers, the Pelusos, the Zellers, the Acostas and the Keisters. I remember late night “dip-and-dances” and the infamous bicycle ride up Thompson Street hill to get home. Third life lesson swimming taught me (how not to be socially awkward and how to talk with girls).



One of Dave Sheets best experiences in his high
school career was the opportunity to swim on
a relay with his brother Scott.  The two brothers
were part of a foursome that captured the 200
medley relay at the 1987 District 4 Swimming
and Diving Champiionship.

Click on photo to enlarge

As years passed I continued swimming. In 1984, a new high school was built…it had an indoor swimming pool. Finally, an opportunity to swim for the Jersey Shore YMCA and represent Jersey Shore High School on a PIAA level (Jersey Shore did not begin officially sponsoring a high school team until after I graduated). Because of this, we had to travel to a qualifying meet each year at Central Columbia. Apart from having the privilege to represent Jersey Shore, it also gave me one of the best experiences of my high school swimming career; the opportunity to swim on a high school relay with my brother Scott. Aside from the above mentioned benefits of having a high school pool, there were the Sunday swims in the middle of winter, the canoeing and lifeguarding classes offered during the school year as well as all of the swimming lessons offered (drown proofing) for every family in the community. I can’t think of another sport or activity that we can learn that will save our own or someone else’s life.

As I entered into my high school swimming career, I had no idea the commitment it would take to be successful. Thanks to Steve Muthler we would swim in the mornings before school. I remember having to get up at 5:15 AM because I drove an AMC Pacer that needed 20 minutes to warm up on those cold winter mornings. We also swam in the afternoons after school. I spent much of my high school career at or around pools. Weekdays were occupied with practice and weekends with swim meets. My parents took us as far as Pittsburgh and Cleveland to really experience swimming…it never got old, and I began to get better. Fourth life lesson swimming taught me (to be good at something takes hard work and total commitment).



Second place finish in 1988
PIAA Swimming and
Diving Championships
Click on picture to enlarge

  My junior year was my apex as a high school swimmer. I finished 2nd at the PIAA meet (before it was divided into AAA and AA) and I learned one of my most valuable lesson from swimming...we were in practice a few weeks before the high school district meet and I was being a royal pain… Mary Hopple was coaching and I was not being very nice to her… I was being a 17 year old boy. It finally got to the point that Mary kicked me out of practice. Looking back, I deserved it. I never had the opportunity to tell her I was sorry for how I acted, that I was wrong…until now. Sorry Mary. Fifth life lesson swimming taught me (Respect is never one-way). Like any good coach, Mary always had our best interest in mind. As a matter of fact, she was one of the big reasons I finished 2nd that year. I respect what she did for me now more than ever.

I could go on and on about the life lessons swimming has taught me. How it helped my parent’s pay for college, it made me a better person by building character, giving me confidence and the drive to be the best. It gave me interaction with positive role models in my life (thanks again Steve Muthler) and introduced me to my wife and kept me healthy. I am 40 years old now and continue to swim and compete. I am certain if you asked any of my high school classmates that may have played football, ran track and field or wrestled if they were still competing in the sport they participated in during their high school years, most would say no. Swimming is the sport we can do all of our lives and it continues to teach us things.

I tell my swimmers at Duquesne that swimming is a microcosm of life. We learn to deal with not only success but failure. We learn to deal with conflict AND resolution. Swimming teaches us that persistence and discipline has its own rewards. It teaches us that sometimes success does not come in our own time but it does come. Swimming teaches us how to be a leader as well as a team player. It teaches us that winning, though fun, is not always the lesson we learn… losing teaches us humility which is also important. Math, History, Science, English, etc. all have textbooks and classrooms. Although not the conventional class room, the pool at Jersey Shore High School was and still is a cultivating environment for every student and member of the community that utilizes it. I value the education I received at Jersey Shore High School…it helped prepare me for college. However, swimming in the waters of that pool, that helped prepare me for life.

If, in fact, the high school pool is a luxury, then it is a luxury the Jersey Shore community cannot live without.

David A. Sheets
Head Women's Swimming Coach
Duquesne Swimming Coach
Jersey Shore High School, Class of 1989