Jaime Lewis, A Gator Swim Coach Chomping Up Swim Smarts

Photo Courtesy: Jaime Lewis

By Annie Grevers, Swimming World Staff Writer

Jaime Lewis wanted to be an FBI agent until she started investigating the business of swim coaching. During her senior year at the University of Florida, she had time to coach a couple nights each week for Gator Swim Club and found herself falling in love with the sport from a new angle.

As a kid, Jaime was not lured to the pool by an innate love for the water.

“It’s just what my two older siblings did,” Lewis said.

But Jaime became a distinguished talent at the Woodlands Swim Club and made Texas high school history during her years representing Klein Oak.

She was a 24-time High School All-American. She won Texas state titles in both the 200 free and 200 IM her junior year. At the state championship her senior year Jaime defended her titles in the back-to-back events and set state records in both events (1:48.76 200 free, 2:01.26 200 IM).

Winning two of the longest sprint events within ten minutes of each other says a lot about Jaime’s stalwart mental game and her terrific conditioning.

Tim Bauer has been the head coach of the Woodlands Swim Club for 20 years and coached Jaime until she went off to college in 2000. Bauer has vivid memories the young Jaime Lewis (then Ellis), always eager to get better.

“She was a good student in high school and never afraid to ask questions,” Bauer said. Jaime’s inquiries paid off in the pool. She kept getting faster.

A High Point in High School

Photo Courtesy: Jaime Lewis

One of Bauer and Lewis’ standout memories from her high school days took place at Junior Nationals in August of 2000. The Woodlands Swim Club was well-represented with 25 swimmers present and Jaime was having a stellar meet.

She set the Junior National record with her win in the 400 IM (4:52.52) and placed second in the 800 free (8:55.76). Jaime was finishing up her cool down as the end-of-meet honors were handed out. Her teammates waited anxiously, as they all knew Jaime was going to be getting the Junior National High Point award. But Jaime had no inkling that she was even a contender.
Her name was announced and her teammates went wild.

“I was completely shocked,” she remembers. Jaime had been stunned by where swimming was taking her, but four thrilling years on the swimming roller coaster still remained.

The day Coach Bauer objectively introduced her to University of Florida coach Gregg Troy is a day Jaime will never forget.

“There was a little voice in my head during and after the meeting saying ‘That’s the program for you.’”

Gator Nation

Jaime took all five recruiting trips to carefully weigh her options. UF was sandwiched right in the middle. She had long considered USC her dream school, but when she had completed all of her visits, Gainesville still felt like her proper home away from home.

Her transition was not especially difficult because “their coaching philosophy was very similar to the one I grew up with,” Jaime said. Yes, swimming was important. Very important. But the person always came before the sport.

She was an instant contributor at UF. At her first SECs she scored 48 points (second highest scorer on the team) and went personal bests in all three of her individual events.

Gregg Troy had taken the helm in 1998, so he was in his third season when Jaime was a freshman. The Florida Gators had fallen off the map in the swim scape in recent years, and Troy had led them back into top ten range at NCAAs.

They finished 8th, then 7th and by Jaime’s junior year they landed in 5th. As a senior Jaime captained the squad of girls which brought home UF’s highest NCAA finish since the 1980s. The Gators captured a 4th place finish and Jaime had capped off her college career knowing she was part of Florida’s surge back into the swimming scene.

Coach Troy is notorious for giving out some of the most daunting sets in college swimming. Or maybe just in swimming. Jaime remembers one set in particular of 20 x 400s stroke. She misheard the set as 24 x 100s stroke thinking ‘What’s the big deal? That’s not so bad.”

When her teammates turned after swimming the first 100, she realized she had made a grave error in her translation of the set. But she stroked on and developed the thick skin of a gator.

Bureau of Coaching

Photo Courtesy: Jessica Lynn Meyer

Jaime’s investigative nature was honed while she studied criminology in college. Her degree was not wasted when she chose to coach swimming over pursuing a career in the FBI.

Jaime entered a different field in need of trained, questioning eyes like hers. Not all coaches are able see and explain the how and why of each stroke and each set. It’s one of the many unique attributes Jaime brings to the pool deck.

Toting her inquisitive nature and tough-as-nails work ethic, Jaime was made to coach.

“She cares about her athletes like they are her family,” Bauer said. “She willing to put the extra time in with her swimmers to achieve greatness.”

Her coaching career began in 2005 when Coach Troy called her to inform her of an opening at Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club in Houston. She was about to graduate from UF and the timing was perfect.

At Cy-Fair (or FLEET) Jaime fell deeper in love with her career thanks to the great core group of coaches.

“The staff was strong and close-knit,” Jaime said. “It made the transition from swimming to coaching fun and exciting.”

She coached alongside Derek Howorth and former long-time head coach Clayton Cagle. Howorth now coaches in San Antonio, but holds his time coaching with Jaime dear, as he nominated her for this week’s column.

“We had many coaches meetings at my house where we would talk swimming, grilled, and laughed,” Howorth recalls. “The conversations the coaching staff would have were always polarized by one of Jaime’s thoughts.”

From Cy-Fair, Jaime accepted a job as assistant coach at the University of Houston where she spent four years gaining invaluable college coaching experience.

But when her phone rang and she was offered the head coaching position at Gator Swim Club in Gainesville, Jaime knew she was going to have trouble saying no to the opportunity. The Gator Swim Club practices in the same water as the UF Gators. The same pool she had logged thousands of miles in as a swimmer.

A Dream Job in Gainesville

Jaime Lewis (left) Photo Courtesy: April Gagnon

After receiving the wholehearted support of her husband Justin Lewis (an Indian River and UF swimmer), Jaime said yes to the new gig in Gainesville.

She took her place on that nostalgic pool deck in fall of 2012 and set her sights on making the Gator Swim Club into a Gold level club in three years time. USA Swimming’s Club Excellence awards are given to the top performing clubs in the U.S. At the end of the year, the top 20 clubs are named Gold level clubs, those ranked 21-100 are designated as Silver, and the next 100 clubs are recognized as Bronze.

In 2015, three years after Jaime’s arrival, the Gator Swim Club became a Gold level swim club. With that designation comes a hefty grant- a reward for creating an environment which helps elite 18 and under swimmers flourish.

Some of Gator Swim Club’s stars which helped their club bust into the top 20 are True Sweetser and Hannah Burns. Sweetser is a member of the 2014-2015 National Junior Team in the 400-meter free and the 1500-meter free. Burns is an IM and breaststroke star who has committed to swim at the University of Florida this fall. Burns’ high school times in the 400 IM, 200 breast, 1650 free, and 200 IM would have made finals at last year’s SECs. She will, like her Coach Jaime, make an immediate impact at UF.

The Takeaways

Photo Courtesy: Jaime Lewis

Jaime admires Gregg Troy and Tim Bauer for how much they know about the sport, but that’s not why she thanks them today. She’s thankful for what she learned from these strong influences in her life.

“At the end of the day you take these swimming experiences and use them in your professional career,” Jaime said. “Time management, family time, discipline, and so much more. You take these things and use them on a daily basis for the rest of your life.”

And after ten years of coaching, Jaime has some advice and reminders for those newbie swim coaches out there:

Parents are not your enemy. You both want what’s best for their child.

You cannot care more than your swimmer does.

These Jaime-isms are simple, yet profound.

Often times a coach wants it more than the swimmer and it hurts to see them let raw talent remain unrefined. But the swimmer must make the decision to commit. No coach or parent can do that for them.

“I admire the passion Jaime brings to coaching,” Howorth says. “Jaime is the type of person who makes everyone around her better, swimmers and coaches alike.”

Jaime Lewis has set examples in and out of the water worthy of emulation. The Gator Swim Club is in good hands with the young, but wise sage of a coach they have found in Jaime Lewis.

*Coach it Forward is a weekly column devoted to acquainting the swim world with some of the fantastic coaches in our great nation. The selection for the next featured coach is made by this week’s subject. The nomination process serves as a way for coaches to pat each other on the back and for the rest of us to learn the coaching philosophy and passions of each distinctly influential coach. Jaime Lewis was nominated by Alamo Area Aquatics coach Derek Howorth.

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