Behind some of the most successful athletic programs in Indiana are the men and women who are the face of the enterprise— the head coaches. As leaders of their respective programs, head coaches, manage everything from the feeder system to the sky high expectations that come from coaching at CHS, and everything in between, in addition to teaching, as most do. But for Chris Plumb, women’s and men’s swimming head coach, all of that extra work is worth it.

“I think the best thing about coaching is watching athletes do things they didn’t think they could do and helping them be responsible for that,” Plumb said. “It’s a very powerful and special thing to help them do that.”

All coaches start somewhere, and for Plumb that start meant taking a position at Bloomington South High School that he took as a graduating senior on Indiana University’s swim team almost 19 years ago. Scott Heady, men’s basketball head coach, got his start 28 years ago as an assistant men’s basketball coach for CHS. and while Plumb took his first job out of curiosity, Heady was born into a coaching family, playing for his dad at Shenandoah High School and then serving as an assistant coach under his dad at CHS. Like Plumb, Heady also played college athletics at the University of Indianapolis under former Pacers player, Billy Keller. His reasoning for following the same career path as his father  goes back to his experiences in high school and college.

“I think the coaches that I had and the success that I was fortunate to have, at both high school and college, (influenced me) and then that competitive edge of (me). (Coaching is) a way to compete and stay involved in the game,” Heady said.

While both coaches said they love their jobs, they also note the stresses coaching causes can take a toll, especially at CHS where the expectations are so high, according to Heady.

“It takes me awhile to get over [losing]. Fortunately, we haven’t done a lot of that here. The other thing maybe would be the expectations,” Heady said. “This is a different kind of place, and if you’re not careful, you can let that get to you. As a coach, or even as a player, that can be overwhelming, but I think we just try to stick with the process and try to focus on the daily and weekly process and prepare for the next game.”

Plumb has managed to continue to meet and exceed expectations with 30 straight women’s swimming state championships, the last 10 under his watch, and five of the last seven men’s swimming state championships. To him, the results reflect the attitude and effort put into the season by both teams, but he said coaching can still be frustrating regardless of winning.

“The worst thing is probably all the things outside of your control. What I mean by that is when [the athletes] go through their daily lives, and while we have influence, but sometimes they get put in situations where they make bad decisions and not being able to help them in those situations hurt,” Plumb said. The most frustrating thing is not being able to help people more; you’re limited in your influence at times.”

The job of the head coach is to send out the best team possible in order to win games. The definition of “best team” can vary wildly depending on the sport. In basketball, the five players on the court should ideally be the five that best work together and play the best as a whole unit, which means that sometimes the best team that Heady can put on the court isn’t the top five players on the team. For swimming, it is much more objective. Plumb makes decisions based on the times his athletes achieve, not his own personal opinion. Plumb, coaching both the men’s and women’s teams, also has a unique perspective on the differences between coaching boys and girls.

“I feel like, I’m going to generalize here, with the girls it’s always trying to create harmony and if I could put it into a shape it would be a circle. With the boys they like hierarchy, they like first place, second place, kind of like a chain of command,” Plumb said. “While there are more similarities than differences, we like to say the girls need to bond before battle and the boys have to battle to bond.”

No matter what sport, coaching is time-consuming. From the daily battles of trying to improve, to the more long term goals of winning state championships, coaches work around the clock. According to Heady, the men’s basketball staff gets about six weeks off in August and September. For Plumb, there are never any “real” breaks.

“I don’t think people realize how much work goes in outside the swim season,” Plumb said. Our athletes swim probably 50 weeks a year and we coaches think about swimming probably 52 weeks a year. I don’t think they realize we probably put in more effort in the offseason than we do during the actual swim season.”

Regardless of the amount of work required, both Plumb and Heady said they are grateful for the experiences they’ve had through coaching, especially at CHS.

“I’ve been fortunate to have really good coaching jobs, but I think this one is an exception; it’s a very special place,” Heady said. “I think we all know the expectations are really high, the young men that you have the privilege to work with on a daily basis, I couldn’t ask for a better place to coach.”