Meet Kevin Chester | Head Coach – Heartland Swim Association

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Chester and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
With our swimmers here at Heartland Swim Association, one of our main goals is to build excellent young adults. We teach them about goal setting, how to work towards a goal, what it means to work hard, to push yourself to your limits and continue going, and most significantly, the importance of being a part of a team. Being a part of something that is bigger than just one person is extremely important to our program.

Many of our swimmers when they hit 15 years old can become summer league coaches. We have a summer league coaching staff of roughly 50 and it is those coaches that have the greatest impact on our team. They have a profoundly positive impact on our incoming swimmers. In some cases being the coach that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Honestly, there is too much to get into in terms of the difficulties and lessons learned from all of it.

The short answer is no it was not easy. I have worked with 11 different teams (between summer league, year round club, high school, and college teams) in 20 years. Some of them I left on my own accord, others I did not. I have worked with people that hated me for what seemed the most trivial of reasons and had persons actively try to get me fired. I have had people quit on me when I needed them the most and had people no matter how hard I tried refused to work with me to better the team.

What I am most proud of is my resilience and my dedication to the team I am with. No matter how hard things got, I have always found a way to stay true to who I am, stay true to the direction of the team, and overcome any and all obstacles I have faced.

How I overcame the challenges was just by knowing that if I did not do the work, if I did not step up, everything would fall a part. Someone was going to have to do the work and if not, there were going to be a lot of very disappointed kids and families. If not me, than who? I have been a part of swimming for over 35 years now, all along the way I have had numerous people tell me I would never get to where I wanted to be. While I am still not there yet, I will not give up and will not let anything stop me from achieving the goals I have.

I care a lot about the kids that I work with. I try really hard to give them a swimming career that they are proud of and have no regrets about it. I want to share my passion with them in hopes of making them passionate about swimming too.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I have only been here a little over a year. But I would start with La Jolla Shores beach, especially when the leopard sharks are out. The Zoo and Safari Park are always a wonderful experience. In terms of restaurants that I have found to be particularly excellent are: Sunny Boy Biscuits, Butcher and Cheese, and then places over on Convoy St are always an experience to be had. In terms of desserts, places like Donut Bar, Parlour Doughnuts, An’s Dry Cleanrer and Handel’s are always a must too. Then Pacific Beach has a great bar scene with many options for a good time.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Definitely my wife. I do not have an easy job, it is not a standard 9-5 job. There are weeks that I work long hours, I work at times opposite of her (before and after school). We have moved over 250 miles 3 times because of a job that I took as a swim coach. I have been coaching for over 20 years and it has taken all of those 20 years to finally find a place to settle down. She has been there with me for most of that time and has willingly moved so that I can continue doing what I love. Which is coaching.

Website: https://www.gomotionapp.com/team/sihsa/page/home

Instagram: @heartlandswim

Facebook: Heartland Swim Association

Image Credits
Melissa Chester and Ivan Alexandrovich