With the recent passing of Norwin Aqua Club’s Coach Jones, the Knight Krier Newspaper decided to put together a collection of memories and moments shared with Coach James to commemorate his impact on the Norwin community and swim team. Each student and teacher that was interviewed was asked about their favorite memory with the Coach, his best qualities, and their favorite part of swimming with Norwin Aqua Club.
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My favorite memory of Coach Jones is the way he would force you to put a smile on your face. It was impossible to be unhappy around him. Coach Jones genuinely cared about you and committed to being at practice everyday. He really tried to make the sport something that everyone could enjoy. My favorite part of swimming with Norwin Aqua Club was the community of people I got to be around.”
— Anna Rakvic
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My favorite memory was me making it to Junior Olympics, and him giving me a hug right when I got out of the water. Coach Jones was such a kind and hard-working coach. He always made sure I worked hard. My favorite part of NAC is all the memories I made. They make my friends and I laugh still to this day.“
— Annie Czajkowski
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Once, I dropped my freestyle time by eight seconds and Coach Jones gave me my first “golden swim cap” as a reward for my improvement. I will never forget the look on his face as he handed me the cap and told me what a great job I did. He smiled the biggest smile, and I just knew in my heart that he was really proud of me. I will always remember how special that moment made me feel. Coach Jones was very dedicated to the Norwin Aqua Club. He had a kind heart, and was always concerned about how he could help us improve. Coach challenged and encouraged us to never give up. He truly cared about each swimmer on the team, and we all knew it. I have really good memories of the years I spent with then Norwin Aqua Club and Coach Jones. The practices were challenging but fun. We were like a family being supported, encouraged, and cared for by the best Coach. I feel so fortunate that Coach Jones was part of my life.
— Serena Borrelli
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My daughter never swam for NAC and Neil (Coach Jones) was never her coach – but she hated it when I was her coach at meets. So… Neil was ALWAYS her unofficial coach at meets. He would talk to her before and after her races, he would watch her swim, track her splits – all of it. She wasn’t a part of his team, but that was who he was. He was the guy who would gladly coach a kid from another team because she didn’t want her mom to be her coach. He was the guy you could ASK to coach someone who wasn’t on his team and he would do it. He just loved the sport and he loved kids. So many of my memories of Neil are him coaching my own kid – who wasn’t even on his team. On deck with Neil, though… (it’s hard to think of him without also thinking of Coach Dan from CSC. They were always together – the dynamic duo.) It was each to find Neil; he was the one in fluorescent yellow or pink shirts. Neil ALWAYS had his clipboard and he never missed a split. He would yell across the pool to swimmers in the water – he was NOT the kind of coach to sit idly or quietly. He was honest – if kids had a bad swim, he didn’t pretend otherwise. But he could pull a swimmer out of his/her head and help focus on the next race at hand. Ten years ago, before I became the head coach, the head coach of my club team quit mid-season. Our team was scrambling and I texted Neil because I just didn’t know what to do. That night, Neil Jones wrote 2 weeks worth of practices for our team, to help us navigate the craziness until we had a plan. He and I spent a lot of time in my first few years as head coach talking – he mentored me for years as a head coach. When the varsity position opened up, he and I had a LOT of texts about it. He was already sick and fighting the cancer, but we were still sending inappropriate and funny texts and GIFs. I told him we were the Norwin Wonder Twins and he told me that is only true if we both agreed to wear tights. That started a whole new conversation…. But he was so, so, so incredibly proud of the swimmers he coached and the team he of which he was a part. For people who didn’t know him, that is who Neil Jones was. He was an institution in AMS swimming, an incredibly knowledgeable coach, a man who coached almost all of the kids whose names are on the Norwin record board and countless others who aren’t. But he was also incredibly funny – often irreverent in his humor, passionate, opinionated, kind. I could go on, but I just can’t believe he’s gone. NAC Nation lost their guy – but, really, everyone who swims in Western PA has lost. I can’t say this enough: he will be so, so missed.”
— Katherine Bernardi, Norwin English teacher
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My favorite memory of Coach Jones was when he handed me the medals I had won at our championships, because he had been a major reason I got any of them. I think that one of Coach Jones best qualities was he was motivational to the swimmers, I always found it easy to work hard and race because he was a great coach. I think one of the best memories was getting close with the other teammates I swam with. The great teammates and coaches made it fun to go to practice everyday.”
— Thomas Gaydos
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I always appreciated getting to talk with Coach Jones before practice doing core [workouts]. And after the team would win a meet, or do good in a race he would always be ecstatic. Coach Jones was a very dedicated and fun coach and mentor. He always showed up and tried to make practices as exciting as possible. I loved getting to hang out and compete with my friends. I also loved getting to grow closer with the coaches.”
— Emily Schaeffer
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There are so many memories of Coach that [it] is hard to narrow it down. But, one of my favorite memories was when we went to travel meet for AMS (Allegheny Mountain Swimming). Something I always enjoyed was going to the meet at Penn State. One of my favorite things that we would do was walking to get ice cream at Penn State Creamery after the meet. He would always tell unique stories about him and his past experiences. Coach Jones was the type of coach who knew when to have fun and when to be serious and focused. If we had long breaks in between events he would often tell us funny dad jokes, but when it was time to swim he would give us advice for the swim and boost our confidence. My favorite part about swimming with NAC (Norwin Aqua Club) is all the opportunities that it produces. You could choose from either a local dual meet, or a larger meet down in WVU (West Virginia University). NAC takes almost all meet opportunities it is given.
— Ellis Slavin
