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On any given Saturday morning, swim coach Wiley Wright shows up to the pool 30 minutes early. Nobody is there. Just Wright, and the water is completely still. He sits down to gather his thoughts and writes down the practice, but for the remainder of his time Wright reminisces about all of the different people that he has coached in the pool, each having an impression on Wright. The pool acts as a museum for the history of Shawnee Mission East swimming. He sees the banners adorning the pool overhead, and although the state championship teams only have one line on the banner, each team has a story to Wright.
On Tuesday, January 19, Wright’s legacy was forever cemented into Shawnee Mission East swimming. Dr. Krawitz announced that the pool was to be dedicated to Wright.
“I never dreamed in my wildest dreams that anything like that would take place,” Wright said. “Of all of the coaches that have been here at Shawnee Mission East, and all of the sports, all of the kids that I have had an opportunity to coach, its basically a result of their hard work; not so much of what I did, but what the kids did.”
In the 25 years Wright has coached at East, the team has won five state championships, 13 league titles, and nine All-Americans. But above all, swimming has seen record numbers with as many as 62 kids on the team, compared to the 25 who came out in Wright’s first season. According to the swimmers themselves, its because of the coach.
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Wright’s first years coaching were spent with the coed swimming team at Pembroke Hill. At the time, Pembroke didn’t have a pool, so the young coach was forced to rendezvous with his team at school and drive to a local YMCA in the team van. The pool was also used by several local club teams, so Wright was limited to an hour in the water each day with his team. Since becoming the coach at East, Wright has more than tripled the team’s practice time. Pembroke’s talent pool wasn’t deep, so the team could barely pull in a winning record, and failed to have a swimmer reach state.
While Wright’s team was struggling at Pembroke, Shawnee Mission East swimming was in their stride. Led by coach Jerry Sprague, the team won state in 1985 by an unheard of margin. And with several key members returning, the Lancers believed they could defend their title.
That summer, Sprague passed away from a sudden heart attack. Wright was a long-time friend of Sprague and Sprague has coached him as a kid. After Sprague’s death, East’s athletic director Art Newcomer asked Wright to be the new coach.
“I always dreamed of coaching at a high school that had a good feeder program going into that program such as country club league,” Wright said. “We are fortunate here that we get a lot of kids that compete in the summer either USS (United States Swimming) or the country club league, or MOKAN (Missouri Kansas Swim League) and I think that helps tremendously.”
The team Wright was taking control of had been successful under their former head coach but above all, Sprague was loved by the team; making the task ahead not an easy one for Wright. According to former East swimmer Greg Schoofs, graduate of 1987, the team didn’t know what to expect with a new coach leading them.
“Wiley knew Jerry well, and I believe [he] swam for him so was able to provide continuity for the program and support for the guys that were particularly close to Jerry,”Schoofs said. “I think the challenge facing Wiley at that time is common in coaching, that he had his coaching philosophy yet it takes time to implement and get the buy-in from the guys.”
Wright’s first season didn’t start as planned. Two key contributors were injured in a car accident early in the season and missed two key months of training, with also some swimmers who may have helped the team at state not going out for the team. Wright and Schoofs both remember when the team finally began to come together: the Lancers won the League meet and with state not far away they felt like they had a chance to win it. During the state meet each race barred a significance to the outcome of the championship. The state title came down to the four men on the 400 freestyle relay, but the Lancers were out-touched and lost the race. They had come two points shy of defending their state championship.
“They accepted what they got,” Wright said. “They didn’t whine, they didn’t complain, they didn’t say ‘woe-is-me’. They took second place and they were happy with it.”
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Jerry Sprague passed away at age 48 and when Wright took the job, he told himself he would pass it on at age 48 and retire from coaching. In 2003, Wright turned 48.
Wright felt it was the right time to go but he couldn’t leave.
The previous season’s team placed only 9th at state, but according to the mother of one of Wright’s former swimmers, Kim Armstrong, even had the Lancers placed last, the swimmers and parents wouldn’t have wanted him to leave.They desperately wanted him to stay. After being sat down and persuaded by Armstrong, Wight decided to stay.
“He had told me that he was concerned about taking too much time from his family for coaching but I told him that I could see how much he enjoyed coaching and sometimes it’s okay to be selfish and do something that you love doing,”Armstrong said. “And I thought it would be a real shame for him to work so hard to build his team and then hand it over to another coach to enjoy the rewards of his hard work.”
With the push from the parents and swimmers whom Wright spent hours with, Shawnee Mission East entered a period of underwater reign in the state of Kansas, winning four out of the next next 6 state championship.
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Ever since Wright’s first practice in the fall of 1985 he has been addressed by his first name, Wiley. Instead of “Coach Wright” it’s “hey Wiley.” Wright believes that he should call every one of his swimmers by their name every time he sees them, and in result the swimmers have enormous comfort and trust in Wright.
“Practices incorporate a perfect blend of work and fun,” Senior swimmer Jack Walker said. “Wiley has a great sense of humor and probably couldn’t go an entire practice without making a joke of some kind. However, once we get into the hard parts of practice, he becomes more serious to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance to succeed.”
According to Senior Clay Finley, a swimmer may not be happy about his performance or may be in a tough situation, but they are comfortable enough to address Wiley about it rather than being intimidated by him. They feel that Wiley understands what they are going through.
“When you see Wiley,” said Finley. “He doesn’t just care about your swimming but he truly cares about what is going on in your life.”
Wright doesn’t demand the students to work hard, but the swimmers choose to for him.
“Wiley’s actions on a daily basis show the type of person he is: a caring, compassionate, dedicated, and good-natured leader,” Walker said. “Someone like that does not need to demand, or even ask for respect, everyone gravitates towards him naturally.”
Before a practice, Wright stands with a group of 20 swimmers by the pool. Whether it’s a conversation about their journeys from the night before or jokes from the team dinner at Olive Garden, Wright is always part of the conversation. It doesn’t matter if the swimmer is a key scorer or a first year junior varsity swimmer practicing three days a week; Wright is there for them.
“I love coaching because of the interaction with the kids on a daily basis,” Wright said. “And again I like to think that it doesn’t stop once your four years are up, but they come back and stop by to see their teammates and to see me. That’s why I do it.”
At the end of every season comes the banquet, lasting four hours. There comes a point in the banquet when Wright talks about every kid on the team individually, but when he talks about each senior it’s different. Next to his podium is a box of tissues. Though one swimmer may have an All-American patch on their letter jacket, he may use the most tissues while he talks about the swimmer who doesn’t. “When you see a JV kid that swam JV for all three years or maybe two years,” Wright said.
“Then their last one or two years they made varsity and towards the end maybe they just placed at league or at state. And to see that they contributed to the teams success is why I love to do it.”
Thomas Puckett was that kid. Going into to the league meet in 2009, Puckett had never been a part of a league meet in the three years he was on the swim team. Puckett got his chance. Swimming the 100 breaststroke Puckett finished in a tie for fifth giving Shawnee Mission East a one point victory over Olathe East. Had Puckett reached the wall a fingernail later, Shawnee Mission East would have lost the streak of five straight league titles.
“He [Puckett] was a part of it,” Wright said. “Had he not stuck out with it, the team would not have enjoyed that success.”
After Puckett graduated in 2008 the team saw record numbers. In Wright’s inaugural season, 25 kids came out for the team. On Nov. 16, 2009, 62 kids lined the bleachers, many of them coming out for the first time. Had Wright retired that day back in 2003, those kids probably wouldn’t have been there.
“I am a firm believer that no kid is better than any other on the team, that you should be treated equally from number one to number 62,” Wright said. “That you should treat them all with respect.”
That number of kids coming out for swimming has slowly been climbing during the 25 years that Wright has been the swim coach at Shawnee Mission East. In those 25 years a lot of things have changed: before a big meet, the swimmers will shave down their entire bodies hoping that it will give them that extra push. Back in Wright’s early years that would have never happened. These things have evolved and they will continue to, but one thing that will never change is the kids. According to Wright, they haven’t changed a bit.
“I would say the kids I started off in 86′ are pretty much the same as they are in 2010,” Wright said. “There are still squirrely kids, there are still kids that are dedicated and kids that are not. But I would say that kids are kids regardless of the years that I have been here at East.”
Wright leaves that responsibility to the seniors instead of naming captains.
“I don’t have any captains,” Wright said. “Basically I leave all of that type of team building and camaraderie up to the seniors. I think the seniors when they get to be a senior don’t want to let down the previous class’ success that they had here so they make a conscience effort that everybody should be a part of this team.”
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From even the first of Wright’s teams, he has friends that he still talks to today and those who come in every season to see him and the team they were once a part of. Many of Wright’s swimmers are busy: some are working their first jobs, some are raising a family, and a few are swimming in college, but when they get a chance, they come back. They will come back to East, not to walk around their old school but to see their coach.
“Once you are a team member here, you’ve got me until I die, as being a friend and anything that I can possibly do for them,” Wright said.
So now for years to come, friends of Wright will be able to return to the Wiley Wright Pool, named in honor of the coach that helped them become better swimmers, state champions, and people of stronger character.
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