I have been swimming on a swim team for about 10 years. As a freshman at DMA I decided to join the swim team. The head coach for the team is CT Lyons; at first he seemed slightly intimidating and really intense. After the first few practices I came to realize what kind of person CT really is. He is one of the most inspiring people I know. CT will push you as hard as you can go in swimming, but he will also be your friend.

CT is one of the most motivating person I know. During a swimming race he will be standing right next to you yelling in your face to go faster or push harder. At the end of practice or right before a swim meet he always tells us that “The person with more heart will win the race” or “Push as hard and as fast as you can go; it won’t kill you”. CT pushes us to do the very best that we can possibly do in swimming and in life.

CT is more than just a coach to all of us. He gets more on a personal level will each and every one of us. This year he took the whole team out to get pizza and have team bonding and to just talk. He told us that coaching our team means a lot to him and that he spends a lot of his time at work or at home coming up with workouts that will make us better swimmers. This really shows how much he cares about us.

If CT wasn’t the coach next year, I probably wouldn’t go out for swimming again. Out of all of my swim coaches throughout my 10 years of swimming CT is definitely my favorite. He knows how to be serious and push you, but at the same time he can be your best friend. I think these are really important qualities for coaches to have because you don’t want the kids to feel like they’re scared of you or can’t come talk to you about something.

CT is definitely one of the people in my life that I’ll remember for a long time. Hopefully, I’ll have three more years with him being my swim coach at DMA. CT is so inspiring and really pushes us to strive to be the absolute best that we can possibly be. I respect him so much as a coach and as a person, and that is why I am nominating him for the 2011 Teen Ink Educator of the year.