When going into high school, many students feel the need to pursue a sport. Whether that is for an extracurricular, their already existing passion for the sport, or simply in order to try a new thing, students often go out for swim. Similar to any other sport, the anxiety of being the new kid or not having enough experience as the others is frightening. However, without even considering the level of the swimmer, Head Coach Paul Marceau aims to make swim a safe place for students where they can grow both as a swimmer and a person.
“Coach Marceau will make you do sets, but he will not put you in a lane that he does not think you can swim in,” Abigail Chan (10) said. “He knows his swimmers.”
Marceau was first inspired to become a coach because of his father, who coached football while he was growing up. However, he started swimming because, when he started high school, he was small and his dad convinced him to start playing water polo and swim through his high school in order to get stronger. Soon enough, Marceau developed a passion for both water polo and swim as he enjoyed the sports and excelled in them both. This background put Marceau in a good position to coach due to his background in swim, coaching, and his expertise from competing competitively and at a high level.
“I came from a coaching family,” Coach Marceau said, “It’s kind of in the blood.”
Due to his extensive background in swimming, as well as the history of coaching in his family, this led Marceau to begin coaching at Ayala. He first joined the swim program 18 years ago as the assistant coach. Over the years, he has been promoted to the Head Coach of both women’s and men’s Swim and Dive, which he has remained as for eight years. He was also the head boys water polo coach for 12 years and was the head girls water polo coach for two years.
In any sport, the main goal is to win; however, programs tend to neglect that their players are also people. In addition to wanting to win league and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) tournament which all programs aim to do, Marceau also wants to use swimming to help transform his kids into better people.
“Swimming takes a lot of work so that would also make them become better humans from being dedicated [to the sport],” Coach Marceau said.
The time and effort that Marceau puts into the program has no doubt had an impact on the students that first come into the program versus the swimmers they leave as. Swim is one of the larger sports at Ayala due to the variety of events and different styles of swim that are eligible to compete in. In both the men’s and women’s programs, there is a vast amount of swimmers though they are all given equal opportunities to succeed and develop during their time in the program. Much of this is thanks to Marceau’s dedication towards the sport and the passion he puts towards it and his swimmers that allow them to fully immerse themselves into the world of swimming and leave as a better person and swimmer.
“He has made me a better swimmer because he is very attentive so he knows what your weaknesses are, and is helping you become a better swimmer,” Chinmayee Phirke (10) said. “He is always pushing you to be the best you can be.”
