It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Jim Blaum didn’t expect to be devising training regimens, designing diets or dedicating himself to leading a high school swimming team.
He did it anyway.
He did it for his daughter.
He did it to keep consistency.
Mostly, he did it because he loves the sport and the program he grew up in and also for what it stands for.
He agreed to become Holy Redeemer’s head swimming coach.
“We had our previous coach step down,” Blaum said. “I’ve been an assistant coach for five years. I stepped up.”
He won’t do it forever.
He won’t even do it past this season.
He’s a father as well as a swimming coach, which means family comes first.
“My daughter is going to swim for Widener University next year,” Blaum said. “I want to go down and see her swim.”
But for now, for this one season, he’s overseeing how Redeemer swims.
This year, this is his family. And it couldn’t be in much better shape.
Holy Redeemer’s girls and boys teams, both light in numbers, finished fourth in the team rankings by the end of the District 2 Class 2A swimming championships this weekend.
Their 200 medley relay team, anchored by Jim’s daughter, senior Cate Blaum, finished with a silver medal during Friday’s first day of districts, one of four silver medals the Royals collected in the Class 2A field. The school’s boys team in that event also earned a silver medal and sophomores Chris Schell, who was on that relay team, also finished second in the 200 freestyle.
The Redeemer girls picked up a couple more second-place spots Saturday, with Greta Walting in the 100 breaststroke and Emily Mahler in the 100 backstroke.
Adam Smith won a bronze medal for the Redeemer boys in the 100 butterfly and Walting turned her 50-yard sprint into a bronze medal.
The total medal count for Redeemer in the District 2 field reached 15 between the boys and girls teams.
It was all thanks, in no small part, to Blaum.
“We are really, really lucky to have him,” Walting, a senior, said. “With his presence on the deck, his processes … I think we’ve come a long way.
“He stepped up when we needed him the most.”
For his part, Blaum didn’t think he’d be so needed.
He was a District 2 sprint champion in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events in the late 1970s and early 1980s while swimming for Bishop Hoban, which merged with fellow former Catholic schools Bishop O’Reilly, Bishop Hafey and Seton Catholic to form Holy Redeemer in 2007.
Blaum went on to swim for Drexel during his college days, coached age groups at the Wilkes-Barre CYC for awhile and was happy being an assisted at Redeemer while Cate Blaum made her way through her high school swimming career.
But former Redeemer coach Katie Snee stepped down after a year due to travel with her job in Hazleton right before the start of this school year. Another assistant, Abby Berger, stepped into the King’s College swimming program.
So Jim Blaum stepped up.
“He definitely stepped up to the plate this year,” Cate Blaum said. “I was proud of him when he took the position. I know he took it for me, being my senior year.”
He took it for more reasons than that.
“I came on board saying one year,” Blaum said, “to continue the program and to build it and to look for a successor for myself. I’ve been part of the tradition since Bishop Hoban. I ddn’t want to see the program fall by the wayside, or slip this year.”
It’s kept it’s footing just fine under Jim Blaum.
He had swimmers tapering at the right time. He had them keep to a regimented routine, right down to a regular weight lifting program. He didn’t hesitate to plan their diet.
A diet?
“We’ve done it for awhile,” Cate Blaum said. “But it was more enforced this year. We fasted — no carbs. You avoided carbs early, then slowly reintroduced them into your diet the week before districts. We were always working hard. There was never a break.”
Yet, he showed a softer side.
“I think he really took the time to look at us as individual swimmers,” Walting said. “Like with the underclassmen, they were able to decide what they like, what their favorite event was, where they could be at their best. He took the time, broke it down. He really showed the direction we needed as individuals. He has a father-like process, but it’s kind of a tough love. He’s a good coach. I’m not going to be here next year, but I wish he would stay longer.
“I think the team is going to miss him.”
Make no mistake, it will be pretty tough for Jim Blaum to give up this head coaching stuff, after watching how much his guidance has inspired his swimmers and helped them grow.
“It’s not going to be easy for me to step down,” he admitted. “I really enjoy coaching. But I have a private practice, also. None of it’s easy.”
But for one season, it was.
Because in a quest to replace something he feared would be lost, Jim Blaum became the coach his athletes would love to keep.
