Denise Maich is a familiar face around Cascade Swim Center; as much a fixture of the place as the maroon and gold lanelines the guards roll out each day, or the wooden beams backstrokers use as a guide to stay on course. She has been the Redmond High School swimming coach for the past six years, the high school water polo coach for three years, and also works as the Assistant Aquatic Director. But many may not know that her Redmond pedigree stretches back through generations of swim team and lessons kids to the days in the early 90s when her family first moved to Redmond from California.
In her first years in Oregon, while her parents worked, Denise and her younger brothers went to the Boys and Girls club in the summer, where they did activities in Redmond’s parks during the day and came to the pool for recreation swim in the afternoons. From the time Denise was 11, they all swam for Cascade Aquatic Club, the Redmond club swim team at the time, year-round. These experiences shaped her childhood. “I’m still friends with people who were my friends in swimming, she says. She remembers the emphasis these programs placed on “moving, talking to people, building relationships;” values Denise carried into adulthood.
“Doing that kind of stuff made me feel like I need to give back to the community,” she remembers. This was a lesson Denise has taken to heart, and she has been drawn to teaching kids to swim and be active and social throughout her career. When she was 17, Denise joined the Cascade Swim Center staff as a lifeguard and, later, as a lifeguard supervisor. Her experience as a guard and a swim instructor led to lifeguarding in college. Later, once she had declared her business major, she took an internship with a national-caliber water park operated by SeaWorld, and developed a swim lesson program where none had been offered before. “Teaching kids how to swim,” she observes, “you’re teaching them life lessons and life skills. Keeping them safe.”
Business administration degree from Rocky Mountain in hand, Denise decided to move back to Redmond. Her husband, also an RHS grad, still has family in the area too and they were drawn back to their roots. Denise returned to Cascade Swim Center as a lifeguard supervisor in 2011 and moved up quickly, volunteer coaching RHS swimming at first, then taking over as head coach the next year, and as water polo coach a couple years later. She was promoted to Assistant Aquatic Director in December 2015.
So what drew her back to her old stomping grounds after she’d traveled around the country for college and work? “It’s about enjoyment. The people, and changing kids’ lives. And I really wanted to start coaching again. It was something I really enjoyed a lot.” That sense of fitting back into place marks Denise’s overall view of her job with RAPRD. What makes Redmond Park and Rec unique, she says, is that “we provide a huge range of programs for different age levels that are affordable to the public,” she says. “We offer something everyone can afford that gets kids out of the house and teaches them life skills.”
The part of her job she likes the most, though, is that feeling of belonging, of community. “There are a lot of people who come to the pool today who came when I first started working here in high school. They have been swimming here forever and still remember your name. It is nice to see people who you’ve seen every day.” Denise also likes to see the RAPRD legacy continue through the generations. “One of my high school swim team kids, when she was 3 or 4, I taught her swim lessons. I got her to go off the high dive for the first time and she did a belly flop and never wanted to do it again. Now I have her on my high school team and see her make it to state every single year. It’s awesome to see that progression. It is kind of cool to see the kids you teach when they’re little, to see them as adults, and they’re still swimming even now.”
Denise has high hopes for her future with RAPRD and her role in the community. “I did the Leadership Redmond program through the city and one day I hope to join a board or Redmond committee and help be a part of something. I would love to see the aquatic programs grow stronger in Redmond. And maybe in the future a new facility so we can provide new options to the public.”
Later, when reflecting on what the longer term might look like, she gets shy. “I want to do what Mr. Howard did,” she whispers, referring to a previous Redmond High School and club swimming coach, “coach for a really good chunk of time.” When pressed, she says more concretely, “Yeah, I want to keep doing it forever. I want to be one of those old ladies out there,” she says nodding to the deck she has walked since childhood and now as a coach, “still going.”
