John Bodden, an alum of McKendree University Men’s Swimming and Diving, and locally of Stingray Swim Club, recently traded in his goggles and cap for a stopwatch and whistle - continuing his swimming career this summer as a coach with Stingray at the Lions Aquatic Center.
Coach John has been a fixture on deck all summer - taking training and participating in swim meets along with Stingray Head Coach David Pursley and Asst. Coach Bryce Thompson and he is leading Stingray’s Summer Camps in July and August.
John started swimming with Stingray when he was 12 years old. He went on to compete at CARIFTA Swimming Championships from 2015 to 18, serving as co-captain in 2017 of what was - at the time - Cayman’s most successful CARIFTA team in terms of medals won and the team placed third in the overall team standings. He also represented Cayman at the Youth Commonwealth Games 2017, Island Games 2019 and Pan Americans 2019. He went on to swim at MacKendree University and graduated with a Bachelors of Art in Psychology in 2022. After his last college swim meet in November 2021, John joined the MacKendree coaching team full time - gaining some valuable experience and making him a valuable addition to Stingray’s coaching team.
Stingray Swim Club president, Marlene West said this about having John as part of the coaching team: “Stingray’s core objective and mission statement assures swimmers that the time spent swimming will be quality time providing guidance and discipline through teamwork, not only in their development as athletes but also as young members of society. We are filled with pride when our mission and objective shines and lives through our swimmers and we are thrilled to have Coach “Lil” John on deck with us.”
John’s future plans include coaching through the summer, working directly with Stingray’s gold and senior groups and he will lead the Summer Swim Camp, supported by Stingray’s senior and college swimmers at the Lions Pool, July 25-29 and August 1-5. Camp sessions are half days, 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., include lunch and are appropriate for swimmers aged 9-15 years old. At the end of the summer, John heads to Catholic University of America in Washington DC where he has accepted a graduate assistant position. He’ll be coaching D3 undergraduate swimmers and simultaneously pursuing his M.A in Psychological Science.
For more information on Stingray Swim Club or its upcoming summer camps con-tact stingraypres@gmail.com.
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