Jordan's Mike Quigley has taught generations to swim

LONG BEACH >> Long Beach’s motto identifies it as the Aquatic Capital of America, and for good reason. The city has produced outstanding aquatic athletes such as Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy and five-time Olympic water polo player Tony Azevedo. But it’s stories like that of long-time Jordan High School swim and water polo coach Mike Quigley that have helped build the city’s water sports community.

“(Quigley’s) work is one of the most under appreciated efforts that the aquatics community has ever had,” Wilson boys swim coach Eric Berg said. “He’s been teaching water polo and swim longer than anyone in Long Beach and I don’t think he understands the impact he’s made on the community.”

Quigley has coached water polo and swim at Jordan for over 35 years, and at age 68, he says his retirement is imminent.

“I’ve broached the subject for the last few years, but I’m always standing on the pool deck the next year,” Quigley laughed. “It’s a ruing joke within the community.”

It’s been said that patience is a virtue, but that’s an understatement when it comes to Quigley. Most high school water polo and swim athletes have previous training before joining the team when they get to high school, but that’s not the case at Jordan. Quigley says that in his tenure, he hasn’t had more than 10 kids that have had age-group training and about 10 percent of his kids had swim lessons prior to joining the program. So most of the time, getting his kids to put their faces in the water is step one.

“That’s not the problem, that’s the reward,” Quigley said about teaching from the ground up.

In April of 1981, Quigley was hired to be the pool attendant at Jordan and an assistant coaching job for both the boys swim and water polo programs opened up the following year. At the end of the season, Quigley became the head coach and has coached with the Jordan aquatics program ever since. He says that it was a struggle at first, but seeing his athletes improve was the best satisfaction.

“It was a good practice if I didn’t have to make a rescue,” Quigley said. “I realized that we had to start in the shallow end and work our way to the deep end.”

Quigley continually stepped back from coaching both programs throughout the years. But as head coaches came and went within the Jordan aquatics program, he had to bounce from coaching both girls and boys teams.

“There wasn’t really a line at the door to become the next coach at Jordan. It was either me or nobody,” Quigley said. “It was never a plan, but someone had to come in and keep things together. As long as I was around, I wanted to keep some continuity.”

Quigley says that he’s not coaching for the wins or the competitiveness of the sport. It’s about working with kids that are excited to be apart of a team and enjoying the camaraderie. He says his teams know it might be competing against future Olympians and stars and that’s what pushes them.

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“I couldn’t tell you the scores or the stat sheets, but that’s not the point,” Quigley said. “These kids put the program together and I wanted to give them the environment to develop amongst themselves.”

“He gets an athlete that is unfamiliar with water and gets them in a position to compete,” said Berg, who leaed how to swim under Quigley at the Los Altos YMCA. “He’s quietly done a fantastic job. The Jordan athletes are very professional and are great kids.”

Quigley credits his teams’ outlook on the sport and says that he’s been fortunate to have groups that make his job easy.

“I didn’t do anything. These kids got the message and deserve the acknowledgement,” Quigley said. “I leaed as much from them as they leaed from me.”

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