By Rosemarie Ross
SOUDERTON — It wasn’t that long ago when Caity Fisher-Warren was one of the Boyertown High School swimmers. A terrific distance freestyler, she was a key member of that powerful Bears team in early 2000.
Now 24, Fisher-Warren is the newly appointed head coach at Souderton High School after serving as the Indians assistant the past two years.
And today she is taking on her former longtime coach and mentor in Boyertown veteran Linda Jones at the Souderton pool in a non-league dual.
And yes, Fisher is also newly married to former Boyertown football standout Jon Warren and now better known as Caity Fisher-Warren.
"It’s very exciting," Jones said. "I think they did a good job hiring Caity. She is young, especially with a big district like Souderton, and they could haven taken somebody older, who had some head coaching experience. I think it’s terrific they had confidence in Caity and I’m sure she is going to do an excellent job. She is such a nice person and, even more important, she is a very fair person."
Jones should know. She coached Fisher from the time she was 7 years old — first in the youth programs, then for Boyertown High and the Boyertown YMCA and USS teams.
"Two years ago we swam against Boyertown, when I was an assistant coach, and that was really strange at first being an assistant coach against Linda," Fisher-Warren said. "Now the pressure is already off.
"But it is kind of funny because I know how she is as a coach. But she doesn’t know how I am as a head coach. So it’s going to be fun having her see a different perspective of me."
Fisher-Warren is also teaches at Souderton. But being just 24 is pretty young to take on the head position for such a big team.
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous," she said. "But being in the program for two years and knowing the kids and the families involved, I know they are incredibly supportive and positive people," she said. "And when you are working with people who are as supportive and positive as they are, being the head coach is hard work but it’s fun. It’s fun because you know in the end you have so many people who support you and the swimmers in order to make their season the best it can possibly be."
In 2004, Fisher-Warren’s junior year, Boyertown went 11-1 in dual sand captured the District 1-AAA girls championship. She was a district finalist in the 500-yard freestyle.
"Caity was a real solid swimmer, always very competitive," Jones recalled. "But you don’t have to be a superstar of a swimmer to be a good coach. Coaching is just totally different.
"She trained with me, so she knows in my mind what a good program operates like. I would think she has the background to know how to train swimmers and make them successful. You need to have someone that’s fair, especially in high school, because you need to take everything into consideration, and you can’t play favorites."
Fisher-Warren certainly learned from one of the best.
"Every single thing you experience in life has an impact on you," Fisher-Warren said. "Even if you’re just job-shadowing somebody. You have some kind of perspective you wouldn’t have had had you not experienced whatever it is. And the way Linda coached definitely plays a role in how I think and how I coach."
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