After Germantown Academy, Dick Shoulberg still kicking

When Richard Shoulberg was a teenager in Norristown, he said, a coach told him: "Every town in the United States has an Olympian. Unfortunately, they don't all have an Olympic coach."

For the last 57 years, Shoulberg has been that coach for swimmers in Montgomery County, leading David Wharton, David Berkoff, Maddy Crippen, and others to Olympic medals, world records, national championships, and college scholarships. Although he is being retired from the world-class program he created at Germantown Academy, the 76-year-old coach said he had no plans to throw in the towel.

"As long as there is water and kids," he said over breakfast last month, "I'm going to do it as long as the guy upstairs says I can."

Although Shoulberg's no longer working his usual six-day, 72-hour-a-week schedule, his calendar remains filled to the brim.

In March, he was in Mumbai, leading workshops for Indian coaches.

In April, he was in Colorado, helping to plan USA Swimming trials and training for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

Now, he's running a swim clinic for ages 15 and under at the Plymouth Community Center.

And in June, he is to launch a new swim camp at the Mermaid Lake Swim Club in Blue Bell.

Meanwhile, sources say, many of Germantown Academy's swim families have followed Shoulberg and his assistant coaches out the door.

Although he won't speak ill of the school where he worked for 46 years, Shoulberg is palpably mourning over the split. His role had been diminishing since fall 2013, when he was temporarily put on leave amid rumors of a hazing incident between two high school boys.

At the time, his sudden and unexplained ouster caused a vigorous backlash, with about 1,800 fans, coaches, and former students around the world petitioning the school to reinstate him.

USA Swimming and local police investigated the hazing allegations, but no one was sanctioned, and no one has divulged what really happened. Shoulberg returned a few weeks later as coach emeritus, along with a negotiated retirement at the end of the 2014-15 season.

James W. Connor, the departing head of school at Germantown Academy, and Jeff Thompson, the new swim coach, did not respond to numerous requests for comment for this article.

Shoulberg does not like to talk about "when things changed" but has said he did nothing wrong.

On the pool deck in Plymouth Meeting on Wednesday, Shoulberg was in his element, barking out drills, cajoling, praising, and closing out the practice with fist-bumps and wet hugs.

Doug Boehme, 17, had put in his three hours of training that day but stopped by the pool to say hello.

"He's my coach. The best I've ever had," said Boehme, who is following Shoulberg from Germantown Academy to Mermaid. "He actually cares about us, and all he wants to see is progress."

Glenn Saldanha, CEO of an Indian pharmaceutical company, said he would take his daughter, Rayna, halfway around the world as often as possible this summer to train with Shoulberg.

Broad-shouldered and leggy, 13-year-old Rayna is one of India's top national prospects. After training with Shoulberg for two weeks in March, her father said, she shaved 45 seconds off her 1,500-meter freestyle at a meet in Dubai and won two bronze medals.

She was back in Shoulberg's lanes last week.

Even when he's talking or looking down at his clipboard, Shoulberg seems to have an eye on every child. He addresses them all by name at some point during the two-hour practice.

"Rayna, you OK? How many more?"

"Matt, I love the way you work."

"James! You have to be a leader. Do the set!"

After a couple of weeks with Shoulberg, Glenn Saldanha said, "The difference is huge."

"It's not the stroke work. It's more in the training technique," Saldanha said. "He's able to gauge the potential of the swimmer, exactly when to push, when to pull back."

Some parents have objected to that high-intensity approach. But Shoulberg - a coach who eschews recruiting and tryouts - said it was hard work, not talent, that makes a champion.

"What I've found is, the higher you raise the bar, the higher the kids will reach," he said.

As close as he is to his elite athletes - he rattles off names, personal bests, birth dates, their children's names from the top of his head - Shoulberg is equally proud of those who progress from aquaphobic to a functional doggy paddle.

After morning practice at Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, he taught kindergarten swim classes, teachers at lunch, parents after school. When freshmen who had never learned to swim came to the school, he said he set aside time to teach them privately, so they wouldn't be embarrassed.

Shoulberg was a swimmer and runner at Norristown High School. At 16, he was a lifeguard at the Penn Square Swim Club when he met a 10-year-old boy who had been through five instructors and was still afraid of the water.

He told the boy's parents: "You let me have 10 lessons every other day . . . and I guarantee you at the end of the 10th lesson, he'll be able to go off the diving board and swim in deep water," Shoulberg recalled. "The minute I did it, I just knew this was what I was going to do the rest of my life."

Since then, Shoulberg has been convinced everyone on earth can, and should, learn to swim.

Shoulberg hasn't been in a pool in years. He says it wouldn't be fair to ask someone to sit on deck and lifeguard for him. But he's committed to lifelong fitness and does his workouts on dry land.

Although he has had numerous job offers over the years, Shoulberg said he never considered leaving Germantown Academy or his modest family home in East Norriton. He said he was grateful to the school for allowing him to travel all these years, and to his wife for being "the mortar that holds the bricks together."

"We've been married 57 years. I've lived all my life in 21/2 square miles, and I've lectured on every continent about competitive swimming and water safety," he said.

Molly Shoulberg, his high school sweetheart and mother of their four children, said she would never expect him to slow down.

"I think his soul is in this swimming thing. It feeds him. It nourishes him," she said.

It's a question Shoulberg has been mulling a lot lately. "At 76, should you be still working 70 hours a week?"

For now, he's letting his calendar answer for him.

Swimming coach Richard Shoulberg has plenty of thoughts on, well, just about everything. Here are some highlights:

On structure

"Kids wanted structure in 1958, and they want structure in 2015. They want to know where they stand with you. They want consistency."

On parents

"Always listen to the parents. Give them their space and their time. . . . But at some point, don't sell your soul to them. You have to have standards."

On success

"A good farmer always protects the soil. I wanted a pipeline of good kids coming up every year."

On the 1980 Moscow Olympics

"It's 11 at night. Kids are in bed. I'm going out for my hour walk. Someone followed me the whole time. That probably was not a smart thing to do. . . . But I always had to have that hour for [me]. It's important."

On his legacy

"When you die, people say nice things about you. I got a chance to read all those nice things last year" when he was put on leave.

- Jessica Parks
 EndText

610-313-8117 @JS_Parks