IT’S OFFICIAL: After second tour of duty as head coach, longtime Colony High swimming mentor has retired

ANCHORAGE — Dawn Brettrager took off her stopwatch one last time.

The longtime Colony swim coach officially retired, leaving behind a legacy of fast swimmers and character not many coaches can match.

"I feel a lot lighter," said Brettrager.

After the boys 400 freestyle relay event, during the final day of the ASAA/First National Bank State Swim and Dive meet Nov. 4 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage, 'Coach B' finally got to lay to rest her clipboard and stopwatch. As she laid them on her bag, she came out onto the deck of the pool choking back tears and was greeted by swimmer after swimmer thanking her for what she had done for them.

"It's been a lot of fun. I'm glad I came back. These kids got on track and I'm happy and I'm sad at the same time. It's bittersweet. I really enjoyed working with a great bunch of kids, had lots of fun, it was great year, great three years actually. It's bittersweet," Brettrager said.

Brettrager had already retired once before. Her children have long since graduated from Colony High School, however Sarah Brettrager's name still graces the record board at the Palmer Pool. After her first retirement, the program went through three coaches in four years. Feeling that the kids weren't able to have some continuity and consistency, she agreed to come back and help. One year turned into two, and two into three, but no longer will Brettrager be on the deck waving her clipboard and checking her stopwatch.

Nearly the entire Colony record board is now made up of names of swimmers from this year or last. Jake Simmons has his name on six records. Gabe Vestri-Giovanni owns both sprint freestyle records and is on the record setting relay teams with Simmons.

Vestri-Giovanni was part of a group of surprising foreign exchange students for Colony this year.

"Danny Vallejo from Spain and Simon Strueli from Switzerland add such a sense of humor. They all get along and have such an impact on the team they've really been our team mascots if you will because everybody talks with them and they talk with everybody,” Brettrager said. “I've had foreign exchange students on the team before but some of them are kind of shy and a little reserved. Some have been successful in the water but this group of three has been a ton of fun. They're great fun to coach, friends with everybody on the team and it's been a great thing for the whole team this year.”

Brettrager could be seen on deck on the side of the pool, reaching her clipboard out above her head or waving her hands up and down, trying to relay up to the minute coaching advice to her swimmers. Brettrager has specific signals for when swimmers need to kick, pick up the pace, or if they are being caught by another swimmer.

"You're taking splits and you don't want them to fall off the times they're supposed to be swimming. The person that is the lap counter, we've got signals. I kind of made my own signals after the first few years of coaching. I thought, well wait a minute I need to communicate this and I need to communicate that," Brettrager said.

Brettrager wore a white polo on deck during the Region III Championships at the Palmer Pool the week before.

“This shirt is retiring and so am I,” was written in permanent marker on the shirt.

Once the meet was over, Simmons jumped in the pool and took Brettrager with him as a sign of appreciation.

"I look at coaching as not just making great athletes or making them the best swimmer they can be but making them productive good citizens... I want them to understand that swimming is our focus but there's a lot of other things that come with that. Some of those kids that were on my team and I see them now where they are in the world and they're being successful and contributing to society in a healthy way and a lot of them are back in the community doing things and that's ultimately what coaching is about. It's exciting as a coach when you see them be successful in exactly what they're doing in the pool and so I just hope that they learned a little bit of lessons in and out of the pool when I've been here," Brettrager said.

Brettrager put in countless hours planning the workouts, entering times and swimmers into different swim meets, and is finally ready to hand the whistle and stopwatch over. Brettrager's legacy is that she is not only concerned with how fast the swimmers swim, but the character they develop as people.

"I coach for the kids, so I hope that they appreciate it," Brettrager said.

Tim Rockey is a freelance writer for the Frontiersman. Contact him at timothy.rockey@gmail.com.