Cooperstown Swimming
in Good Hands

By TED MEBUST
COOPERSTOWN
Due to the fallout of team sports seasons being canceled for the 2020-21 season, the Cooperstown boys and girls swimming and diving programs were each left without coaches. As the fall sports season approached in August of 2021, Coach John Hodgson said he felt compelled to step in and ensure his daughter, Ariadne—then a senior—could compete. After completing his first campaign with the girls team, a 3-9 effort with just 11 people, Hodgson said he immediately knew it wouldn’t be his last.

“It’s such a wonderful sport for competition. The goals are measurable and everything is in times, so you know exactly where you stand and how your progress is doing. It’s easy to measure yourself,” he said of his first experience as a swim coach. “It’s the best part of my day.”

With the boys’ season upcoming, Hodgson decided to stay on and help them compete as well.

“It was an easy transition, and such a good time, so it was impossible for me to say no,” Hodgson said of when he was asked to head the boys team.

According to Hodgson, heading a team in a sport he had never participated in before, with no prior coaching experience, came with a learning curve. Additionally, his athletes had taken a year off, and some were participating in the sport for the first time, so getting right into the training brought its own challenges.

“That was the hardest part, getting them excited about athletics,” Hodgson explained. “The social part was easy, but the challenge was the yardage. Swimming is tough work; the team that wins is the one that practices the hardest, so getting them to that level was a fine line to walk.”

Hodgson credits the coaches of the seven-team Tri-Valley League as helpful mentors, teaching him how to write practices and coaching technique to ensure good competition amongst all teams in the conference.

In just his second season as the girls team coach this past fall, Hodgson and the Cooperstown swimmers posted a 10-2 season, with Hodgson being named All-Mohawk Valley Swimming Coach of the Year. In addition, standout swimmers Emily Kane and Caitlin O’Sullivan were named to the All-Mohawk Valley Girls Swimming Team, with eighth-grade Milford native Kane getting top nods as Swimmer of the Year in just her second season on the team.

“We just had a fantastic group that was willing to work hard,” Hodgson said of the girls swim teams during his tenure. “They all hold each other accountable.”

He also acknowledged the role of Cooperstown girls team swimmer, and boys and girls team manager, Arya Patel, in both teams’ successes, noting her commitment and effort in helping create workouts and keeping the athletes on track.

The 2022-23 Cooperstown boys swim team recently entered their postseason with the Tri-Valley League Championship Meet held on January 19-20. After a short break, they will compete in the Section III Class C Championship Meet, then Section III State Qualifiers for those who make the cut.

The boys’ accomplishments thus far, Hodgson explained, are quite impressive given their roster of just seven.

“We are the smallest team, but we are currently ranked super high. So we’re doing really well, we’re having a good season,” said Hodgson in the days prior to the Tri-Valley League Championship Meet. “Right now, our goal is to expand our comfort zones and try new strokes, so that when it comes time for sectionals, we’ll have a team of well-rounded athletes.”

“Wherever we went, we were always the smallest team,” Hodgson said of both boys and girls teams over the 2022-23 campaign. “I think what got us there was our attitude, the fact that everyone wanted to perform not just for themselves, but for other people on the team… they wanted to be a winning team.”

Hodgson cited previous swim coaches Cheryl Rock and Katy Haseley as “giants whose shoulders he stands on” in terms of continuing team success. Additionally, Hodgson recognized locals Matt Grady, Scott Whiteman, Frank Miosek and Lucas Spencer as sources of inspiration for committing fully to coaching.

When asked about coaching both the boys and girls teams going forward, Hodgson said that “initially it was temporary, but at this point I cannot see a future without it.”