47°
Jason Paige has helped the New Canaan YMCA swim team garner many accolades since he became a coach there 10 years ago. Most notably, as the competitive swimming director, he shaped the program into a nationally recognized Bronze Medal winner, making it one of the Top 200 in the country. But he saved the top prize for himself his wife, Katey.
Paige met his wife, a former coach of a Philadelphia-area YMCA program, at the long-course nationals in 2006. "We started talking, and things started blossoming," he said. They now live in New Canaan with their 6-month-old son, Gavin. "So the Y's actually given me quite a lot."
Paige started swimming competitively at age 12 in South Windsor, N.Y. He admits he was a little old in picking up the sport, considering he now has children involved in his program as young as 5.
Paige swam at the Division I level at St. Bonaventure and got his feet wet in coaching in his tenure as an assistant at the University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State University before he came to the YMCA. With Paige's help, kids from the Y's program have gone on to swim at colleges such as Indiana, Colgate, Bucknell and the University of Pennsylvania. And when summer rolls around, many of them return to the Y to train.
Watching kids develop is Paige's favorite part of the job. He said he tells each of his 215 charges that their skills will improve only if they are willing to work.
"To see that switch get flipped, it's very rewarding, because it's personal growth," Paige said. "To know I've had an impact on their life in that way, it's why I do it. That's something that they can carry over into anything that they do."
Click here to follow Daily Voice New Canaan and receive free news updates.
