GREAT FALLS — Last Friday, longtime head swimming coach at Great Falls High and CMR Ed McNamee announced his retirement from the position.
This follows a successful 22-year tenure leading the Bison and the Rustlers.
"The program is in a spot now where it's time to have a new look at it," McNamee said Thursday at Great Falls High School. "I'm proud of what we did, I really am. And I'm proud of what we accomplished. But what I'm most proud of is the relationships with the kids."
Combined between the two schools, McNamee won nine team championships, finished as runner-up in 11 years and compiled 29 total team trophies.
"It was a great experience, a great run," McNamee said. "If I was talking to myself from 2003, I would've told you, no way. No. That's not going to happen."
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As one could expect, this decision took a lot of time and thought, McNamee said.
"Probably one of the harder decisions I've made in my life," McNamee said. "Swimming has been — outside of my wife, Erica — it's the longest relationship I've had.
"I didn't want to outstay my welcome. I didn't want to not have the energy to do it the way it's supposed to be done. That's the bottom line. When that came to me, I was like, this is the right thing to do. It's not the easy thing. It probably wasn't the nice thing to do on a lot of levels, but it was the right thing to do."
McNamee explains how he first became the head coach in 2003.
"When I was student teaching in 2000, that's when I got contacted to be an assistant coach," McNamee said. "Then after two years of that, they just basically handed me the head coaching job like it wasn't really an option. It's more of like I was told I was going to do it."
Ever since, he has been a crucial piece of the sports growth across Montana.
"I'm going to miss that aspect of it too," McNamee said. "Doing the things to help build the sport, because we worked hard to make sure that swimming was viewed just like every other sport."
McNamee established the "four teams, one family" motto.
"My youngest daughter Avery was born at 2:30 in the morning and I was at practice at 8 in the morning," McNamee said. "That's when I kind of understood like, hey, we're all taking time away from our family, so this becomes your family."
McNamee will continue to serve as head baseball coach at Great Falls High and said handling both sports is not the reason he is stepping away from swimming.
"I don't think it'll really set in until November time frame," McNamee said. "It's a decision that I am comfortable with now. There are stages of grief, I guess, that I've kind of been through, but I'm looking forward to what the next chapter is for them. Just don't know where I fit in to that. I know the kids are still there and I can still visit with the kids, and I told them I'm still going to be there for them, but in just a different capacity."
