“SUCCESS DEPENDS ON WHAT IS DONE, NOT WHAT IS SAID”

I started my swimming career with the Macomb YMCA Marlins in 1973 and swam for them for 13 years. In 1987 I began coaching the Marlins swim team. During the time frame of coaching with the Marlins, I have coached over 13 National Teams, which involved more than 40 different athletes. Many of these athletes received athletic scholarships at the colleges in which they choose to attend.

When I left the Marlins swim team, my daughters were young. My daughters grew up in the LCN pool because I was not only the high school coach, but I also run the community education swim program. We would spend a great deal of time playing in the water and because of my history of teaching swimming and coaching swimming, they wanted to try swimming competitively. Eventually, they developed friends that wanted to swim competitively at the pool. It did not take long until their friends wanted to go to the meets with my daughters. This was fine with me because they all had fun together. Over the course of time, the small group of swimmers I was coaching wanted to do more, they wanted to become a team. I contacted a fellow coach and we joined our unattached teams and formed the Macomb Octopus Swim Team. 

I have 3 goals every season for the MOST Swim Team:

1. Constantly improve technique and endurance so goal #2 can be accomplished.

2. Maximize the number of qualifiers of every championship meet. This includes Junior Olympics (JO) State Meet, Sectionals and any other meet that will help swimmers receive recognition for a possible college scholarships.

3. I want every swimmer to maximize their educational experience. This includes not only becoming smarter in the pool, but also smarter in the classroom. I also hope as their cognitive level increases, it will also increase their level of sportsmanship.

I know that the MOST will have a very bright future. I envision MOST being the type of program that all participants, be it athletes, parents or spectators will be proud of. With a great deal of help from everyone this program can exceed every person’s expectations and could produce swimmers that have the capabilities of competing at the international level.

Hello, My name is Molly Chaffee and I am one of the coaches for MOST. 

My swimming career started over 11 years ago when I became a Marlin on the local YMCA swim team. During my first season, I remember being so afraid of swim meets and all the other kids on my team. But as time went on, my confidence in the sport grew in the water and out of it. I continued my swimming career throughout high school while swimming for Dakota. I spent my time on the high school team making memories and friendships that will last a lifetime. 

After high school I moved up to East Lansing to attend Michigan State University. In May 2019 I graduated from State with a degree in Human Biology and a minor in Spanish. While living in East Lansing I coached for the MACerals, a summer team out of the Michigan Athletic Club for two years. 

Swimming has always been the only sport for me. I fell in love with it at a young age and never looked back. I absolutely love being able to share my knowledge of the sport with growing swimmers. I believe that this sport teaches kids so much about themselves and the meaning of being on a team. Swimmers push each other every day they hop in the pool together, whether its for a hard practice or a big swim meet. 

I'm so excited to be a part of MOST and work with the team!