Legendary Cranford Swimming Coach Barbara Kolesa Announces Retirement

CRANFORD, NJ – For the second time in a few weeks, a staple in the Cranford sports community has decided to retire from coaching. After longtime baseball coach Dennis McCaffery announced his departure from the Cougars, legendary Cranford swimming coach Barbara Kolesa recently announced she is stepping down as head coach of the program after 27 years at the helm.

With nearly three decades of memories with Cranford swimming, as well as five years as the head coach of the Linden program prior to moving to the Cougars, Kolesa knew the 2024-25 season would be her last.

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“I thought it was my time,” she told TAPinto Cranford. “I had retired from teaching in 2020, and I hung on because I enjoyed being with the team and the swimmers, but I sometimes thought you have to take a step back and let someone else take it over.”

The high school program wasn't the only one that Kolesa was involved in. During her time with Cranford, she also helped manage the local pool, coordinate the lifeguard schedules, and coach the youth summer swim teams. Over her nearly 30-year coaching career at Cranford, Kolesa has had the unique opportunity of seeing Cranford swimmers grow from barely being able to swim to competing at the high school level.

“I could have gone another year,” Kolesa added. “I kept pushing it because there were kids that I had been with from three years old, and I wanted to see them finish.” That experience is something she will not soon forget.

“It was wonderful,” Kolesa said on being able to watch the development of Cranford’s swimmers. “It was great to see them grow and great to them move forward and learn a valuable skill they can take with them for the rest of their lives.”

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Kolesa is also somewhat of a trailblazer within the New Jersey high school girls swimming. Before the 2014-15 season, Kolesa had led the Cougars’ co-ed team as one of the best teams in the state before the team was split into a boys and girls section. In the Cougars' first year as a girls' swimming team, Kolesa shepherded Cranford to a sectional championship.

“It is something every coach dreams of and to have it finally happen, it was amazing,” Kolesa said.

While that 2015 sectional championship was the pinnacle of her success in the pool, the relationships and connections Kolesa built with the swimmers are a big part of what she will remember most about her coaching career.

“It is a combination of all things,” Kolesa said. “Seeing them go from that little eight-year-old winning the 25-yard freestyle to the 18-year-old winning the county championship. I watched them all the way through.”

With Kolesa stepping away from coaching, those closest to her know just how much she will be missed within the Cranford program. Former Cranford assistant coach Colleen Donnelly, who coached alongside Kolesa for 18 years, is both sad and happy that Kolesa is retiring after an outstanding and impactful career.

“I think people will miss having her friendly face around the pool every day,” Donnelly said. “She was a staple there. I will miss all her stories, she had her favorite sayings. It was kind of a big family with the kids on the swim team. She is the reason Cranford swimming has been so good for so long. She built that team.”

Despite retiring from coaching at Cranford, Kolesa plans to stick around the swimming life and the swimming atmosphere as a lifeguard and high school official.

“I am currently lifeguarding at Cranford pool twice a week, sort of my retirement job,” Kolesa quipped. “I am now a swimming official, so I will be at these high school meets officiating. The rule does not allow me to officiate Cranford for obvious reasons, but I may see the swimmers somewhere else. I am sure I will see them on the pool deck when I am lifeguarding.”

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