When she was in her teens, swimming coaches put Linda Moats in sprints.
Turns out she was born to go the distance.
The longtime Sequim High School coach took her final kick-turn with the Wolves this winter, completing her 17th year as the SHS boys swimming coach — the only coach the program’s had since it started in 2000.
For a time — nine seasons, to be exact — she coached both of Sequim High’s swim teams. It was Moats the Wolves turned to in starting a girls program in 1998, and Moats (then Linda Bingler) oversaw one of the school’s more successful programs through 2009.
“It was fun,” Moats says. “It was always a reward to do something for the community.”
A life-long swimmer who showed a keenness for the water by the time she was swimming on her own at age 2, Moats says she’ll be taking a pool of memories with her.
“I will miss coaching,” says the 59-year-old. “Interacting with the kids keeps you young.”
Summer Jackson, an All-American prep swimmer and 2004 State 3A swimmer of the Year, said Moats was a big influence on her career, on that led to an athletic scholarship to the University of Arkansas.
“Linda was probably one of the best coaches I’ve ever had,” says Jackson, who’s working on post-doctorate studies at the University of Arkansas’ Terrorism Research Center.
“She was tough but she genuinely cared for her swimmers and athletes not just about swimming but in school. I find that’s rare.”
“I wouldn’t be half the swimmer I was and definitely not as successful as I was if she wasn’t pushing me to be the best.”
For her efforts that year, Moats won the class 3A Coach of the Year honor, and Sequim earned its best finish in SHS history (sixth).
“A big part of that is that there was a feeder team into the high school team,” Jackson said. “We had a lot of talented swimmers aging into that at the same time. (Linda) had a lot of experience with swimmers competing at that level.”
But the Wolves weren’t done. Sequim saw several swimmers earn spots on the medal stand in 2005 and, after being shifted to the class 2A ranks, placed third at state in 2006.
“Even after Summer left, the team wanted to get to state,” Moats says.
Sequim’s boys never quite met the same success as the girls did, though Moats saw several strong classes along the way. The boys’ bests season by record was 2001-2002 when they finished 7-4 and took eighth place at districts.
Because of small turnouts, SHS boys teams struggled to keep pace in overall scores against league foes — they recorded just four seasons at or over .500: 2001-2002, 2003-2004 (4-3), 2008-2009 (5-4) and 2009-2010 (6-6).
Still, thanks to strong swimmers in both programs and a solid diving program, Moats and company have taken an athlete to a state meet each season since 2000.
Much of the time, Moats notes — and in particular in recent seasons — she’s working with athletes who haven’t competed in any swimming events at any level, or she’s having to teach them the very basics of strokes.
“It surprises me how many people get to the high school level and don’t know how to swim; boggles my mind,” she says.
That wasn’t the case for Moats as a youth.
Making a splash
Born in Pennsylvania, her family moved to Socorro, N.M., and there she and her sisters would walk to the neighborhood pool and play all day long.
As early as age 2, she would mimic other swimmers until, as she recalls, “One day, Mom just let go.”
By age 5 she was able to complete a butterfly stroke.
The family moved again to South Dakota and then on to Nevada, where Moats joined a summer team and competed one year on her high school team.
“My coach put me in all the sprints,” she recalls.
She took about six years off of swimming. After finishing her undergraduate degree in Nevada she moved to Florida for graduate school. There she joined up with a group of Master’s club swimmers.
There, coach George Bole helped inspire her in workouts.
“He was the best coach. He was really funny, but very interested in swimming technique. He’d write individual workouts on pieces of paper each day. He was very motivating.”
After 18 months there was inspired to swim competitively and showed acumen for the distance races. She took first place in the 10,000 meters at a world meet World Masters Games in Toronto. She earned All-American honors in long distance in both 1984 and 1985.
She took on her first coaching position in St. Petersburg, Fla., a three-year assistant stint at Clearwater High School for a program boasting of about 45 athletes. But growing tired of the humid weather and crime, Moats began applying for positions on the West Coast. A job opened up at Battelle, now Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in Sequim, brought her to the Olympic Peninsula.
She tried her hand at triathlons, but, as she notes, “I don’t like running. I never liked running.” She still has the $750 bike she bought for such events, two-and-a-half decades later.
Moats started coaching with a local Master’s swim group, and after the club’s then-coach Heidi Hagelstein died in a biking accident she and Yvonne Yokota took over coaching responsibilities.
In the late 1990s, Sue Jacobs — then the director of the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center, encouraged Moats to apply for the Sequim High girls coaching job.
“The first year coaching girls was fun; they were so excited,” Moats recalls.
From just eight girls in 1998, the program grew and grew. In 1999 the Wolves had their first winning season (5-4). Two seasons later, a freshman named Summer Jackson joined the club.
“That first year, (Linda and I) went to state together listened to (music) and told stories and laughed and made me feel really relaxed,” Jackson recalls. “I was super nervous.”
The youngster was great from day one, earning the rare Ironman Award — earning state meet-qualifying swims in two different events her first four meets of the season in all four of her high school years.
Jackson went on to win three individual state titles and 10 medals (top-eight) at state meets.
“(Linda) was tough,” Jackson says. “She was absolutely a great coach. She did a lot for me. Whoever takes on the role have some pretty big shoes to fill.”
Keeping busy
Not one to keep still, Moats has plenty on her plate in her post-coaching days. She is still swimming — three or four times per week with swimming buddy Todd German — and keeping fit with plenty of aerobics and weightlifting.
She’s likely done with long-distance swimming — she placed fifth in a national meet in 2007 — she and her husband Jeff are spending plenty of time on or near the water. Moats works for Global Diving &Salvage as an oil spill responder and Jeff is an avid fisherman.
On top of that she’s written a children’s book aimed at 2-4-year-olds she’s hoping to get published. She paints, mostly landscapes and animals, and she’s a devoted bird enthusiast.
So she’s not pushing herself to get back into coaching, though it seems as if she can’t help herself with at least advocating for more swimming opportunities. She says Sequim really needs a youth development group, if not for competition then simple safety.
“There are no guarantees, but people who know how to swim are better at avoiding that last-gasp reflex (that’s so dangerous),” she says.
Come next winter, someone else will be giving out lane assignments and Moats sees bright things for the program, particularly with the strides freshman Jax Thaxton and sophomore Liam Payne made by season’s end.
Thaxton and Payne were part of SHS boys’ 400 free relay team who earned a berth in the state meet this winter. Moats says she told her young Wolves to avoid watching other swimmers so they wouldn’t psych themselves out or get over-anxious, but they couldn’t help themselves.
“They were really rapt; it was great to see the interest they had,” she says.
“Those are my feel-good stories.”
