PUHI — When the starting horn sounds at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation Swimming Championships, Ted Bockman will be there. Bockman, who arrived here earlier in January from Santa Fe, Calif., has been diligently working with Kaua‘i
PUHI — When the starting horn sounds at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation Swimming Championships, Ted Bockman will be there.
Bockman, who arrived here earlier in January from Santa Fe, Calif., has been diligently working with Kaua‘i High School swimming coaches Monique Irmberski and Sarah Gray in preparing the Red Raider swimmers for the KIF meets.
“This is something I can do,” Bockman said. “I just cannot see myself sitting around reading a book.”
Bockman, a former swim and water polo coach for Cabrillo College, said he started coaching swimming in 1961, the third year Cabrillo College was in operation.
Jockeying between a full-time faculty position as well as coaching the swim team, Bockman said he continued coaching even after retiring in 1995. He continued to coach the Cabrillo College program until 2001.
His affiliation with the Raider program came after he and his wife visited the island almost 10 years ago.
During that time, Bockman said they took a tour of the National Tropical Botanical Garden and he remembers making note of the volunteer program.
“The next year, I volunteered, and the year after that, my wife volunteered at the NTBG,” the soft-spoken coach said. “I remember listening to the guide talk about the volunteers and I said to myself, ‘I could do that.’”
But the fire of coaching swimming lingered in Bockman’s soul and that led him to Charlene Quinones, the then Kaua‘i High School athletic director.
“She told me to just call Melissa Hall who was the swim coach for Kaua‘i High School at that time,” Bockman said.
Since then, Bockman said he is really appreciative to the Kaua‘i swim coaches who could have just told him no.
“I helped Melissa for one year, helped coach Tom Cockswell for three years, and now, I’ve watched how Monique developed into a coach,” Bockman said. “I’m so glad I was given this opportunity to help the kids.”
This year, when Bockman arrived in January, he said he was tasked with the newer swimmers on stroke or technique.
“I really enjoy working with the Hawaiian kids,” Bockman said. “They’re respectful, they’re always smiling, and they’re just a lot of fun.”
He notes that Kaua‘i’s youth is lucky the island is so sports-oriented, noting the obstacles Kaua‘i High School swimmers have had to overcome because their swimming pool is closed for repairs.
“When they come here (the YMCA pool) to practice, they’re limited to six lanes where they had eight at home,” Bockman said. “And Monique does a great job as a coach because she’s always so enthusiastic. It’s so good for the kids.”
But despite these obstacles, Kaua‘i swimmers have kept up with the swimmers from Kapa‘a and Waimea and have obtained their share of state qualifying and consideration times.
“Coach Ted has quiet knowledge,” Imberski said. “He does not push things on you, but if you ask him, he has the exact answer you were looking for.”
She said that sometimes when she, or coach Gray, or coach Ted tries to explain things to the swimmers, one of them will finally get through to the swimmer.
“We’re pretty happy to have him here helping us,” Imberski said.
Imberski said that the KIF Championship will be specially scored so there will be a winner. The previous qualifying meets had no points being recorded so no school was a winner.
She said they are working to have some of the rules modified so kids who work really hard all season can see the fruits of their efforts instead of being limited to just, certain number of events.
The KIF meet starts at 10 a.m. at the YMCA pool hosted by Island School.
Coach Bockman is scheduled to leave Kaua‘i on Tuesday.
