Legendary Pennsylvania high school swimming coach Gwen Whildin died on January 21st, 2019 at her home in Pompano Beach, Florida of complications from diabetes and ESRD. She was 66.
Whildin taught and coached at a number of schools in eastern Pennsylvania, including 4 years with the Panther Valley School District and 32 years with the Northampton Area School District, where she retired as coordinator of the district health and physical education program.
She coached the Northampton High boys to the 1993 PIAA State Championship, and in total led the school to 8 Mountain Valley Conference titles and 18 event state titles.
Whildin was the coach at Emmaus High School in 2006-2007, when the girls’ team went undefeated and won the state title, taking a dominant 6 state titles.
She returned to Northampton for the 2009-2010 season, and a her rebuilding efforts there earned her the 2014 Express-Times Coach of the Year.
She also founded and coached the KIDS US Swim Club. She coached, among others, 2-time Paralympic gold medalist Travis Mohr; as well as US National Teamer and Big Ten Champion Allysa Vavra.
“My career couldn’t be anything without her because until she came into my life, I didn’t even know about USA Swimming,” Vavra said. Vavra’s mom was actually coached by Whildin when she was an athlete. “She went above and beyond for me and asked for nothing. She would run extra workouts for me (including dryland), I’d stay at her house and she would drive me to meets if needed. Her workouts were outrageously hard which probably made me ready for college workouts.
“She honestly was never in the spotlight,” Vavra continued. “If she even know that I made an Instagram post about her she would be rolling her eyes, because that wasn’t her. She became like family and she meant so much to my mom that my mom was the one who offered to donate a kidney to (Gwen).
“They weren’t a match, so they sat on the donor list, waiting for a counter-pairing for a double match to come through, but sadly that never happened.
“Swimming lost someone who gave her life to the sport, and if you ever saw Gwen on the pool deck, I hope she was able to impact your life in some way. I will miss her, but I know she is probably making someone in heaven do doubles with drylands…even on Sundays.”
I was so sorry to hear of Gwen’s death. My girls joined Kids Swim Club when they first started competitive swimming back in the late 80’s. She was such a good instructor and all the kids loved her. She was a great coach.
Gwen was a One of a Kind Inspiration! She was my coach, my teacher, my guide, my standard setter, my mentor and my friend. I will miss her.
I second Rob Herb’s sentiment. We are all so fortunate she was in our lives and I continue to be grateful to her.
The tremendous success of this coach is amazing. She helped improve the lives of thousands of kids. Incredible.
January? Looks like a great coaching career.