ROCKPORT — The Camden Hills swim team has a new head coach, one who is familiar with the program and has a handful of state championships to his name. 

Two years ago, being a swim coach was not on Mark McCluskey’s radar. In fact, up until some brief volunteering with the Camden Hills swim team last year, he had mostly distanced himself from the sport since the end of his collegiate swim career at Howard University.

But McCluskey, the new head coach of the Windjammers, decided to pursue the head coach opening when he heard from a few members of the community who encouraged him to apply.

“I really enjoyed working with this group,” he said. “Hearing that the opportunity was available to work with this team again was really exciting. This is an unbelievable group of teenagers who are really passionate about the sport.” 

No high school in Maine has had a true meet in about a year and a half, McCluskey noted, as high school swimmers around the state instead participated in essentially virtual meets, where swimmers would swim their races at separate pools and send the results to each other. This season, however, meets will be held as traditionally pre-pandemic with pandemic guidelines in place. 

Strict mask-wearing will be mandated at meets for spectators, coaches, officials, and swimmers when they are not in the water.

“We’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to hold real meets and we have no plan to jeopardize that,” said McCluskey. 

Aside from the pandemic, this season will be a unique one for the Windjammers, who have been moved up to compete in Class A from Class B, meaning the Windjammers will face an extra challenge in the unknown. 

“[T]his is a very competitive group and we have depth at every area of competition: sprint, distance, butterfly, breaststroke… I have somebody who can not only compete in that event, but they’ll be in the mix for a first place finish,” said McCluskey. “We’re the new guys in town being in Class A, but don’t count us out.”

Among the swimmers on the roster are four seniors: Sadie Woodruff, Gail Curtis, Oliver Worner and Karla Upham. 

Woodruff is looking to close out her high school swimming career with a bang, noted McCluskey.

“She’s a breastroke specialist, but will be competing in a variety of events on a daily basis to bring us the points we need to win close meets,” he said. “Despite her individual accolades, Sadie has made it obvious that her main goal is team wins above individual wins. On the state level, keep an eye on her as a top finisher in the Class A state championships in whichever events she decides to compete in.” 

Curtis is a 10-year veteran of the swimming pools and, according to her coach, is psyched to be back in competition for her senior year, coming into practice with a great attitude every day.

“She has one of the toughest jobs on the team, bravely specializing in butterfly (arguably the toughest stroke) and the 200 IM (a race in which you swim every stroke),” McCluskey said. “It takes a certain amount of mental strength to take on these events and not only does she take them on, she excels at them. I won’t be surprised to see her on my state championship roster this year.” 

Worner is also a swimmer of 10 years, and, according to McCluskey, is a distance machine in a world full of sprinters. 

“He’s quickly established himself as a leader on this team, bringing some organization to my life as a coach as well as recently being acknowledged for the Prudential Award at school,” stated McCluskey. “Once the competition begins, he’ll establish himself as a threat to other teams in the 500 freestyle, an event that takes a ton of endurance. There’s no doubt he’ll be achieving the state championship cut time in that event and many more.”

Upham enters her first season as a member of the Camden Hills swim team after moving to the Midcoast from Florida. But her new arrival does not mean she should be overlooked, McCluskey said. 

“Honestly, I’m not sure if Maine Swimming is ready for what Karla’s bringing to the table,” he said. “I have yet to see her in a meet, but she’s already tearing up the pool at practice in the butterfly, attacking every set I throw at her with intensity. Don’t be surprised at all if we see her placing this year at her first Maine State Championship.”

With sights trained on state championships, McCluskey will channel his own personal successes to help his swimmers be successful in the water. 

He grew up around the sport of swimming, especially Maine swimming, his entire life.

“All three of my older siblings were apart of the Sailfish swim team, so it was reasonable that I would decide to follow the trend, but decided to a little early at 4 years old,” McCluskey recalled. “Rather than sign me up for swim lessons, I was thrown directly on the team where I wore a life jacket for the first year.”

As a Windjammer, he was surrounded by talented swimmers on the Camden Hills team, including Kyle Crans, Julian Abaldo, Peter Gimlewicz, Brandon Benson, and his brother Eddie. 

McCluskey won the 200 Freestyle Relay three years in a row, from 2013-2015, with each of the aforementioned teammates. In his senior year, McCluskey individually won the Class B state championship in the 50 Freestyle. 

Following graduation, he swam four years for Howard University, an NCAA Division I HBCU program, and was a team captain his junior and senior years. With the Bison, he held the team record in the 200 Freestyle Relay with Kegan Ford, Alex Barnes, and Speakman Smith until it was broken recently. He still holds a Top 10 time in program history for the 50 Freestyle.

His primary strategy as the team’s head coach is fixing technical mistakes early.

“I think the swimmers are already sick of me stopping them in the middle of their workout to critique their technique,” he commented. “I’m a big proponent of ‘work smarter, not harder.’”

Equally important, though, is balancing hard work with moments of fun. 

“While our common goals is winning, the whole point of joining a high school sport is having fun,” he stated. “We’ve already discussed ways to make our meets more exciting, with team cheers and other new and old traditions. I’ve instilled the motto ‘Positive Vibes Only’ which got a great eye-roll and groan from most of my swimmers. Although they hate the motto, these guys are bringing positivity to the pool every day despite the challenging workouts I’ve been setting up for them.”

The most rewarding part of coaching for McCluskey will be watching his roster of swimmers accomplish their goals, he noted.

“We’ve been working early on setting short and long term goals for the season and these guys have some exciting and attainable goals for the team and themselves that I’m confident we can accomplish,” McCluskey said. 

Chief among what McCluskey is looking forward to in his first season as a head coach is competition. 

“These swimmers haven’t had a real swim meet in over a year, so the opportunity to get back to having them has us all pretty energized,” he stated. “This is my first year coaching at all, so I’m personally excited to learn how to strategize a swim meet to get wins. Whether we win or not though I’m just ready to see these swimmers get rewarded for the hard work that we’ve been putting into the preseason.”