Shawano Recreation Center pool manager retiring

SHAWANO — It has been 33 years since Dave Kolitsch plunged into the deep end of being pool manager at the Shawano Recreation Center.

As he approaches the age of 57, the time has come to hang up his trunks. His last day is March 2.

It’s a job he says he’ll miss.

“If you stick with it that long, you either like it or you’re crazy,” Kolitsch said. “Some people say I’m crazy, but I think it’s because I like it. You know the old saying, ‘if you love your job it’s not like working.’”

Kolitsch grew up in Appleton and was a competitive swimmer.

He moved to Green Bay where he worked for the YMCA and was waterfront director at the YMCA summer camp.

He heard Shawano was looking for a pool manager at its recreation center and “I was lucky enough to get it,” Kolitsch said.

Parks and Recreation Director Matt Hendricks likes to say Kolitsch has taught nearly the entire community how to swim during his three decades in Shawano.

Maybe not everybody, Kolitsch said, “but a lot of them.”

“We usually have nine sessions of swim lessons a year,” he said. “That’s a lot of kids.”

Many of the children he has taught have been the sons and daughters of the kids he had taught years earlier. Some have even been third generation.

“I’ve had some kids that took lessons and became lifeguards and actually help teach some lessons with us,” Kolitsch said. “That’s cool to see.”

He’ll also run into former swim students, adults now, who remember him when he’s out and about in the community.

“They say, ‘Hey, you taught me swim lessons,’” Kolitsch said. “I love those kinds of stories. Those are my favorites.”

Not all of Kolitsch’s swim students are children.

“Classes range from six months up through senior citizens,” he said. “So we run the full gamut.”

In addition to swimming lessons, the recreation center offers a variety of pool-related programs, including aerobics, paddle board yoga and Joints in Motion, which allows people with arthritis to do a little stretching.

“We teach whatever’s needed, basically,” “If we can find a way to do it, we’ll do it.”

The swim lessons are what he’ll miss most about the job, he said.

“When you see the kids smile and you see the adults smile, when they realize they can do something they maybe didn’t think they could do, that’s my favorite part,” he said.

The job also carries some heavy responsibility, particularly the training of lifeguards.

“The responsibility is probably what weighs on my mind the most,” Kolitsch said. “I’m training these lifeguards. These lifeguards are watching out for other people’s lives. All that responsibility.”

Recruiting lifeguards can sometimes be a challenge, Kolitsch said, but the center currently has an excellent staff.

“They’re almost all high school kids,” he said. “They’re good kids. They work hard.”

Kolitsch’s job of pool manager will take on a new title, becoming aquatics coordinator after he leaves, but with the same duties.

Tara Kelliher, who has been working for the recreation center for several years in various capacities — including spending a year and a half painting the mural that surrounds the pool — will be the new aquatics coordinator.

In addition to swimming lessons, the job entails managing the pool chemicals, coordinating staff, training and certifying lifeguards, organizing swim lessons and getting that information out to the community.

“I was originally hired to paint the mural,” Kelliher said. “They kept me on for different projects.”

Kelliher has spent a couple of years working with Kolitsch, who had already begun thinking about retirement.

“I thought, ‘that’s not such a bad job,’” Kelliher said. “You get to be physical. It’s not just one activity. Also, a big huge one for me is, the people here are awesome. They’re a really good team. They’re really encouraging. If you have a good idea, they find out a way to make it happen.”

Originally from Ashwaubenon, Kelliher has been in Shawano for about 14 years.

Painting and making custom cakes has been Kelliher’s part-time vocation.

“At some point, as my kids got older, I knew I would have to make a shift and go back to full time work,” she said. “This seemed like the right thing.”

Kolitsch said he would like to do some traveling in his camper after retirement, though that won’t be his first priority.

“I tell people I’m going to sleep in on the first day and after that we’ll see,” he said. “I plan on relaxing but not just sitting in my recliner all the time.”

Kolitsch said he’ll miss the job.

“I am going to miss this,” he said. “The people here are great. The patrons that come in here are fantastic. They’ve all been wishing me well and telling me I can’t go, but then I introduce them to Tara, and they’re OK with that.”