High School Coach Taught Students What It Takes to Succeed

Patch and When the Game Stands Tall are asking about the coaches, teachers or mentors who inspired you.

Lauren Sweet’s mentor is a high school swimming and diving coach.

Mentor Name: Theo Tomljanovich

Known Mentor for: 5 years

School: Clarkstown High School Swimming and Diving (Men & Women) and Condors Swim Club

Town: Clarkstown

State: New York

What mentor taught about success: Coach Theo has taught me that in order to succeed one must do three important things. First, is to be on time to all practices, ready to work. Second, is to give your best effort. This goes for anything in life, give your best effort and work your hardest, because when the time comes you can shine like the stars! Third, to be dedicated to anything and everything that you do, or want to do. If you want to be at point A, believe in yourself, put the time in, work your hardest and you will get to where you want to go. He taught me through his actions in his dedication to the team. Unlike some coaches, Theo believes that every athlete matters, and deserves time and attention. Some coaches just focus on the few ‘stars’ on their teams, and ignore the rest. Coach Theo sees great potential in all of the athletes that he works with and trains. Coach Theo never tossed me aside when I hit bumps in the road of my training...at those times, when I needed encouragement most, he never failed me.

What mentor taught about dealing with failure: Coach Theo has taught me that failure is an important part of success. In order to succeed, you must fail so that you can fix what is causing your failure. Whether the cause is not training hard enough, so you don’t preform well. Or failing a big test because you didn’t study. Failure highlights flaws, no one is perfect. After races, Coach Theo always gets to the point. If it was a bad race, he tells me what he knows I need to do in order to fix the flaws in my stroke. If it was a good race, he tells me it was good, but he always finds something that needs to be fixed, changed or perfected.

Best advice from mentor: Coach Theo has given me a lot of advice over the years and it has all been beneficial to me. The majority of advice he provides has to do with my swimming. Coach Theo has stayed after practices to work on my nightmare of a start. He has helped me with my freestyle stroke which ultimately led to my qualifying for my first individual NY State Championship event in the 100 freestyle. Coach Theo continues to teach me how to use my height as an advantage when, at many times, I have viewed it as a deficit. Coach Theo taught me never quit.