What Olympic coach David Marsh would have told himself as a young man
David Marsh, 56, is SwimMAC Carolina’s CEO & director of coaching. He’s served as a coach with the U.S. Olympic team and personally coached 47 Olympians from 19 countries. He owns 12 NCAA national titles from his time at Auburn University, the most in school history. He’s also the women’s head coach for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team.
I grew up in Miami. I was not a very good student. My self-image was tied almost completely to sports. I played football and baseball. My hero was Hank Aaron. I was a big Atlanta Braves fan growing up. I was a good baseball player, but just a skinny stick of a kid.
In 10th grade, I tried out for the high school baseball team. In Miami, there are a lot of really good baseball players. The entire tryout was them throwing five pitches to us and timing us running to first base.
I hit four out of five line shots, my time to first base wasn’t super fast, but pretty good. I thought, “I’m all set.” That was on a Friday. On Monday the baseball coach had a list on his door of who made the team.
I strutted up to the door and lost all the blood in my face when I saw my name wasn’t on the list. I was literally lost at that moment. I’d missed out on the thing I thought I was going to do forever.
My older brother was on the swim team. I decided to go out for swimming and try and beat my brother at his sport.
Swimming was a no-cut spot. Through inspiration – this was when Mark Spitz was swimming – and desperation of not having another identity than that of an athlete, I went whole into swimming.
By the end of my swimming career at Auburn, I was sixth in the world at my event and would have been an Olympic team candidate, except in 1980 we boycotted the Olympics.
I kept looking for ways to get better. I was motivated by a desire to be accepted and be something better than average, to be special. It wasn’t at all for the Olympics.
If I could coach the young man I was then, I would make sure he knew that his individuality is a gift from God – don’t try and be someone or something else other than what you are. Your path in life will take care of itself.
As told to Michael J. Solender
This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 11:24 AM with the headline "What Olympic coach David Marsh would have told himself as a young man."