Coaching More Than Wins And Losses For Carlson

Shakopee junior Katie Nadeau attributes a lot to Sabers girls swimming and diving coach Kathy Carlson.

Nadeau said she views Carlson as “a second mother,” a person who has influenced her life both in and out of the pool.

“I feel like I wouldn’t be the same person I am today (without Carlson),” Nadeau said. “She’s taught me so much, work ethic and everything.”

Carlson announced last weekend she would retire after 32 years of coaching Shakopee swimming, and Saturday’s Class AA state meet was her final competition. So naturally, Nadeau, who took 11th in the 200 freestyle and 15th in the 100 butterfly, dedicated her performance to her longtime coach and mentor.

“I didn’t go as fast as I wanted to, but she knew I gave it 110 percent,” Nadeau said. “So to dedicate it to her was my main thing.”

Carlson is synonymous with Shakopee girls swimming. She was the program’s inaugural coach in 1979 and, over the course of three decades, she coached both her daughters to state championships, was part of the Sabers moving to a new swimming facility and was inducted into the Minnesota State Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Carlson said. “It’s hard to let go of something that’s meant so much to you over the years.”

Carlson didn’t grow up around competitive swimming. She applied to coach Shakopee’s inaugural program after becoming interested in the sport while living in New York.

It escalated into a profession, and she grew along with the Sabers. When she took the job in the program’s first season, Shakopee had 75 girls with no competitive swimming experience.

But Carlson’s program evolved quickly, and the Sabers won the Suburban West Conference in style in 1984. Facing Eden Prairie, Mound and Chaska in the season’s final meet, the championship came down to the final relay—and Shakopee won.

The Sabers continued to be competitive through the 1990s, and in the early part of the decade Carlson coached her daughters, Jennifer and Katie, to individual state championships.

“She’s like a legend,” Nadeau said.

Her success transcends the pool. Carlson said improvement was the initiative, not a winning percentage.

“We’ve won a lot of meets along the way,” she said. “Of course winning is fun, but it’s more than that. Being part of something like the swim team, the girls are learning to do more than swim fast. They’re learning to be responsible, learning to handle their excitement and their successes but also their disappointments.”

But at last weekend’s team banquet, Carlson announced it was time to step down. It wasn’t an easy decision.

“I just decided it was time for me to step back and let someone else take over the program,” she said. “I’ve been doing it for 32 years and I love it, but it’s very time consuming and I just started looking at retirement and decided it was time.”

After Saturday’s meet, the reality of moving on has set in.

“As the only coach Shakopee’s ever had, I didn’t realize it would be as difficult as it is,” she said. “But I started the program. Handing over the program isn’t easy but it had to happen sometime.”

SHAKOPEE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

200 freestyle: 11. Katie Nadeau (1:55.08); 100 butterfly: 15. Katie Nadeau (59.52).