With a life mission of water safety, Barbara Miller has taught hundreds how to swim and be water-safe. Along with teaching children how to swim, for the last 20 years she has been the swim coach for a championship swim team, the Dolphins, at the Chester Recreation Association (CRA). Miller hung up her whistle and retired this season. She was recognized with a special honor during the Dolphins awards banquet last Thursday as CRA’s lap pool was named the “Barbara Miller Championship Lap Pool.”
Miller was completely surprised. “CRA had never named anything for anyone before this. It was quite an honor, and I was actually speechless,” she said. “It did bring a tear of joy to my eye to be recognized for all the people of the Chester community that I have touched through my association with the pool and sad that I will no longer be a part of the swim team. My family has grown up at CRA, and I will continue to bring my grand kids there as it is still the best facility in the area.”
Parent representative Jennifer Acome is among those who will miss Miller. “I have worked with Barbara for four years, and am so sad to see her leave. “Her commitment and loyalty to CRA and the swim team will be difficult to replace. It is her passion for swimming, but more importantly, her passion for coaching kids is what has made her the “winning-est” coach in the league for 20 years. I’m so proud to have worked with her, and fortunate to have been a part of the Dolphin family that will continue to grow as her legacy.”
Miller arrived at CRA as a member with young children after she and her husband relocated to Chester in 1981. She began teaching swim lessons at CRA. When then, coach Diane Miller left to return to school, Miller was asked to take over. She took a seven-year break in 2001 to teach swim lessons at the Chester YMCA, and returned to CRA in 2008.
Miller was also a school teacher and began her 14-year teaching career at Chester Middle School in physical education. With her connection at CRA and her life’s mission of “water-safe,” she developed the swim program at Chester Middle School in 1995, giving eighth-grade students a two-week program near the end of the school year at CRA.
“I wanted to make kids water-safe,” she said. “With so much water surrounding us, with the James River and our lakes, I found it important. My speciality has always been swimming and making kids water-safe.”
Retiring from the school in 2006, Miller continued with the program at CRA and with Chester Middle P.E. teachers Jeff Lesueur and Scott Pellyuntil the school closed in 2010.
Miller worked with 150 to 200 swimmers, from five- to 18-year-olds, each season. They compete in the Chesterfield Aquatic League (CAL) Division A and have been league champions every year from 1990 to 2015 with the exception of one year. This year they were dual-meet champions with a record of six wins and no losses.
“My main focus is for everyone to enjoy competitive swimming, to have swimming become a part of their life,” Miller said. “Some will swim all year and want to compete in every meet. I want them to have this for the rest of their life. To be healthy is the top goal.”
Miller said when they join the team half of them don’t know how to swim. “When they join the team they think they know how to swim but half of them don’t know how. I think my success has come from my being a teacher.”
“The Times-Dispatch did an article in 1989 when Whitney Hedgepeth was my assistant coach. She had just competed in the 1988 Olympics,” Miller said. “It was an honor to have her work with the swimmers and I have continued to share her and my love of swimming. I feel very proud of all the swimmers who have graced our waters and continued in their accomplishments. Facebook makes my heart smile when I see what they have done. I will miss my connection with the swimmers (which has kept me young) and their parents, as a meet could not run with their dedication and teamwork. It has been a great family to be part of and I hope they will keep me in the loop.”
