Everything he’s got
That’s what Joe Flaherty has been giving to Montgomery
County youth swimming for nearly 30 years
By JAKE SCHALLER
Montgomery Journal sports editor
August 6, 2001

Joe Flaherty’s face goes blank. Slowly, he slides back from his perch on the edge of his chair and slumps back. The flow of words from
his mouth have stopped abruptly and you wonder, ‘‘It was a swimming question I asked, wasn’t it?’’

For nearly 30 years, Rockville native Joe Flaherty has given his life to coaching swimming. He built Flower Valley into a power during 25 years there and he now is revitalizing Manchester Farms in Germantown, where he has coached the last two summers. In the winter,
Flaherty runs Joe Flaherty’s Dolphins, an intensive swim club that gives participants a chance to train year round.

Give him just a little nudge and Flaherty will whip himself into a frenzy talking about his coaching philosophy, lessons he’s learned, people he’s taught and the assistant coaches who he insists deserve most of the credit for his teams’ success. Eyes aglow and hands waving, he’ll describe in detail everything you asked him and
more.

But this one has him stumped.
‘‘What is the greatest, most memorable moment I’ve had coaching?’’ he repeats slowly.‘‘That’s not fair.’’

Joe Flaherty never meant to become a swimming coach. He spent summers at his neighborhood pool, as many children do, but he was by
no means a standout swimmer. He said he didn’t even really enjoy the sport when he was growing up, and if you ask him, ‘‘What did you
swim when you were a kid,’’ he’ll reply, ‘‘Slow.’’

Nevertheless, when he was 18, Flaherty became an assistant coach at Flower Valley for a summer job. It was just something to do while ‘‘wasting my life like most college students,’’ he said.

But this summer job — which he could not stand when he started it — slowly began to grow on him. Thinking he could ‘‘hold on for another
few years,’’ Flaherty coached another two summers. And then another.

Then, in 1979, Flaherty coached for the first time during the winter while he finished the last class he needed to graduate from the University of Maryland with a business degree. It was during this time that he realized he wanted to devote his life to coaching.

‘‘I left an early morning swim practice and I was driving over to my class in early November,’’ Flaherty said. ‘‘On the way over, I was thinking, ‘I hate business, I hate this class, what am I going to do?’ ’’

During the ride, Flaherty said, the song‘‘Climb Every Mountain,’’ sung by the Four Tops, came on the radio. It included the verse: ‘‘Find a dream that will need all the love you can give; Every day of your life for as long as you live.’’

‘‘That’s when I decided I was going to coach,’’ he said. ‘‘It was very emotional.’’

And while that may seem hokey to anyone who has not met Flaherty, it’s the honest truth. He thrives and acts on emotion in his everyday life, and his coaching style is no different.

Each summer, Flaherty asks his swimmers to memorize one of three inspirational poems (The poem rotates among, The Impossible Dream, Daring Greatly and Don’t Quit). Copies of the poems are included in Joe Flaherty’s Dolphins Coaches Handbook — a thick, detailed and ainstakingly put-together binder of Flaherty’s vision.

A quick look through the handbook can tell you everything you need to know about Flaherty and his coaching style. While he wants to win, and does — he had a 121-4 record at Flower Valley — Flaherty stresses teaching kids what it takes to win. Even more important is giving his swimmers an improved self-image and helping them learn to accomplish goals — no matter how, or even if, it affects the team’s chances at victory.

Several years ago, Flaherty received a phone call. It took him a minute to place the caller, Vickie Barron, because he hadn’t spoken to her in years. Flaherty had coached Barron when she was 9 and 10 years old in the late 70s. Though she had spent only two years under his tutelage, Barron still remembered Flaherty’s lessons and emphasis on character over talent.‘‘She said, ‘Whenever I get down, I think about what you taught me,’ ’’ Flaherty recalled with a smile.

Flaherty seems to take more pride in the lessons his swimmers learn about life through swimming than the lessons he gives them on their strokes. But that likely is why he has such a loyal following.

Dave Stetkert, who swam for Flaherty in the early 1980s as a 12- and 13-year old, still holds the Montgomery County 100-meter freestyle record for boys ages 15-18. He went on to swim for Indiana University and legendary coach Doc Counselman. During his senior year, Stetkert
qualified for the Olympic Trials. He called Flaherty and asked the coach to train him again. Flaherty counseled Stetkert to stick with his college coach, but Stetkert wouldn’t listen.

‘‘You might be right,’’ he told Flaherty. ‘‘But I want to come home and finish my swimming with the person who started me out.’’

Stetkert isn’t the only person who has come back to Flaherty. He has several swimmers on his current Manchester Farms team that are
children of people he taught at Flower Valley. And if you head over to Flaherty’s house during the week, there are always volunteers working
in his office on Dolphins’ business. They’re there because of what Flaherty means to them and what he means to their kids.

‘‘When I first saw Joe teach, I thought the guy was excellent with swimming technique. But he brings so much more than technical swimming,’’ said Tom Reinheimer, who swam for Flower Valley with Flaherty and now has two children under Flaherty’s charge at Manchester Farms. ‘‘He really fills the kids’ minds with positive information.’’

And activities. Several times each year, Flaherty teaches more than swimming technique. Flaherty brings members of his swim club to The Lord’s Table, a soup kitchen in Gaithersburg. Several years ago, his swimmers raised $5,000 in two years to pay for new ovens at the kitchen. Flaherty also brings his swimmers, and alumni swimmers, to nursing
homes in the area to sing Christmas carols.

‘‘We try to build community awareness,’’ said Flaherty, who regularly has to turn away swimmers from community service projects because so many sign up.

Flaherty thinks for another moment or two and shakes his head. There seem to be too many memories for him to pick out and crown
just one. So instead of answering, Flaherty seems to change the subject.

He tells of a time early in his coaching career that he went to interview
for a job with Ed Solitar, who coached at the University of Virginia for most of his career and even had a gold medal winner. But when Flaherty met him, Solitar was teaching a young, novice girl how to do a flip turn.

‘‘This was a coach who had been to the top of the world,’’ Flaherty said. ‘‘But when the girl finally did the flip turn right, he lept — jumped into the air. I thought,‘That’s the kind of coach I want to be — to be able to get off the round when I’m 70 years old in honor of a child.’’

Flaherty stops and reflects with a grin, and then his eyes dart forward.

‘‘I had a swimmer rank No. 1 in the nation in two events,’’ he says. ‘‘You would think that might be the top moment, but I only thought of it now in relation to this story.’’

Flaherty pauses again.‘‘I don’t want to say it wasn’t exciting,’’ he says. ‘‘But it’s the day-to-day athlete learning something new. That’s what will stand out.

And that is why, for so many people who grew up swimming
with Joe Flaherty, he still stands out.