By Jack Lancaster
Brad Shannon is the first full-time head coach for the WPU swim team.
Shannon is originally from Maryland and has been swimming his whole life, he started with Chesapeake Bay Aquatic Club swimming and then swam throughout high school at Leonardtown High School and then finished his career by swimming at Ohio State.
He didn’t accomplish everything he wanted to in the sport.
Being a coach is what Shannon wanted to do after college swimming, since he looked up to his coach he wanted to be that person for someone else. The thoughts of being a coach didn’t start until the end of his senior year.
He has coached several times. He started coaching in middle school with him coaching a summer league for two years. He was a collegiate swim coach assistant for four years.
For him, the reason coaching comes from a passion of swimming is because he had a role model growing up and he hopes to be that person for someone on the WPU swim team. His role model was his coach in club swimming in Maryland, who coached him for years.
He gave him his first coaching job and helped him get into coaching himself and created that relationship with him.
Shannon discussed the challenges of being a head coach that he has seen in his first year at WPU. The challenge he had was working with people 18-22 who are figuring things out and don’t always act in a way that makes sense to him as a 27-year-old man.
He has worked with the team members to have a positive outcome of the situation and whether that’s figuring out if they want to swim on the team or step up in the classroom and or a social issue between teammates is also a challenge. He feels as the 18-22-year-olds really need morale support as this time in their life is crucial.
Connecting with his athletes has been a big deal to him. This year he has implemented team bonding activities and individual weekly meetings with him to make sure team members are on track to success. He gives support not just through team bonding but through career and academic support too.
Shannon likes giving back to the community, he volunteered to work with the Special Olympics from 6th grade all the way up to 12th, he even got the WPU swim to volunteer sometime this past swim season with the Raleigh special Olympics team.
Shannon used to be a D1 athlete and described it as an enriching experience. There were 15 practices a week, which was 20-23 hours of practice. The day would start off with either swimming or the weight room and then off to class and lunch and then ending the day with another practice and then you’re done for the day to do whatever you desire.
As for his time here at William Peace, he says coaching is what gets him out of bed in the morning and he has a lot more he wants to accomplish and continue coaching for at least five to six years. His goal is to transition to helping high school athletes who are trying to get into collegiate swimming.