Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/134761
her swimmers from Portage Park followed her to the club team at Latin and then attended Latin for high school. These days, swimmers who started with Laub-Norman as 3 and 4 year olds are coaching swimming and water polo at high schools or for club teams throughout the Chicago area (including Caitlin Kaulas '08 and Tim Ruppe who coach for Latin's swim club). Or they are sending their children to Latin for Learn to Swim. Laub-Norman herself did not learn to swim until she was 11. She was a quick learner and joined the Portage Park club team at the age of 12. She got her first job with the Park District as a lifeguard when she was 16. She soon started teaching and coaching and was asked to take over the Portage Park aquatics programs after college. According to Laub-Norman, a big part of coaching is watching. "I learn a lot by watching," she said. "You go to these meets and you're waiting for your kids to swim, so I am always watching. I especially watch the kids who are better than we are. I ask myself, 'Why are they better?' I look at what they do, and I know what we do, and then I know what we have to work on." She has high expectations and a commitment to making her swimmers the best they can be. Carlson credits Laub-Norman's strategy of pushing her swimmers to be well-rounded for her successes in the pool at Colby. "How I swam and worked was very different from the other people on my team," Carlson explained. "Often in high school swimmers are taught to specialize. But Celeste always had us practicing every stroke, so I was a far more versatile swimmer." This allowed Carlson, who was captain her senior year, to be incredibly useful to her team because she could jump in and swim whatever stroke was needed. In May, Carlson accepted the position of assistant aquatics director at Latin, further cementing her long relationships to swimming, Laub-Norman, teaching and the school. For both coaches, the next chapter looks better than they could have imagined. n "Often in high school swimmers are taught to specialize. But Celeste always had us practicing every stroke, so I was a far more versatile swimmer." – Danielle Carlson '06 LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO 15