Swim coach celebrates 20 years with summer team

A local swim coach is celebrating 20 years with the same summer team. He’s created a successful program by focusing on so much more than strokes and scores.

Jim Mercurio joined the Devon Crest Gators in the summer of 2004, the same year he graduated from Bishop McDevitt High School.

“I’m here to help nurture these kids,” Mercurio said. “For whatever reason, I have this calling to coach, to teach. It’s what I like to do, it’s what I feel called to do.”

That calling has kept him poolside at Devon Manor Swim Club in Lower Paxton Township morning after morning, lap after lap. He grew up in the water, joining a swim team himself at the age of just 4.

He competed for the Colonial Country Club swim team, Bishop McDevitt High School and the Lower Paxton Aquatic Club. He learned under the leadership of the late Central Pennsylvania swimming legend Rusty Owens.

“No doubt I would not be the coach I am today if it was not for the greatest influence on me, outside of my parents, Rusty Owens,” Mercurio said.

For Mercurio, summer swim is about life lessons, both in the pool and out.

“Taking care of our mind in the summer, waking up, staying in a routine, getting great exercise, getting fresh air, getting socialization with our peers along with the physical aspect of just getting that exercise, getting the heart pumping, getting the blood flowing,” Mercurio said.

Assistant Coach Justin Pitassi calls Mercurio one of his biggest role models. He coaches with Mercurio after calling him “coach” for years.

“We have over 160 swimmers and he makes it very important to him to make sure he sees everybody and gains a relationship with everybody and their families,” Pitassi said. “You never hear a single bad word about Coach Jim. He creates a good relationship, a loving relationship with each kid. It’s incredibly impressive.”

Devon Crest calls itself a swim family, or a “Swamily.”

The program is also a family affair for Mercurio. His mom, Deb, makes pancakes for every swimmer on the team each and every Friday along with other faithful volunteers.

“To me it’s the swim team, but yet it’s so much more than that,” Deb Mercurio said. “He teaches them their strokes and whatnot, but it’s the other things that he teaches them. It’s the friendships. It’s the sportsmanship.”

And it’s the fun, according to 8-year-old Dakota Leigh.

“He’s a good coach,” Leigh said of Mercurio. “We do relays and other fun stuff.”

“How often is it that you have a team where your seasoned high school Varsity swimmers are just as important in meets as your 5, 6, 7, 8-year-olds who can score just as many points in their individual races,” Mercurio said. “And that’s what I think makes Devon such a team and really such a family.”

In his 20 years at Devon Crest, Mercurio has built a legacy of teamwork, time drops and life experiences between the lane lines.

Mercurio is a history teacher at Bishop McDevitt High School. When asked if he was prepared to coach at Devon Crest for another two decades, he said “that’s the hope.”

To learn more about the Devon Crest Swim Team, click here .

Note: The author of this article has children on Mercurio’s team.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.