Myra Nelson

Welcome to another year of swimming at Incarnate Word Academy. My name is Coach Mic and this will be my 10th year here at school. I am very excited about swimming this year at school. To say the least, it will be interesting!

My husband, Pat, is also involved in swimming. He is the head swim official for our area. He has been chosen by USA Swimming to represent the State of Texas twice for training at the two main Olympic Training sites. He gives the officials training course each year for both high school and USA Swim. Both of us are NCAA swim officials and work the Western Athletic Conference Championship Meet each year. Pat is a retired Navy pilot and my best friend.  

We have 3 children. Tim and his family live in Mission, Texas. He is the head swim coach for McAllen Memorial.  Tim teaches AP Calculus and dual credit calculus. Tim and Jessica have a boy, Maverick Apollo. Doug, our middle one, lives in Charleston, South Carolina. Doug has an interesting job since he teaches active duty personnel how to operate nuclear power plants on submarines. Kim, our youngest, teaches 7th grade reading in Odem. All three of our kids were great swimmers. Tim swam at Ashland University in Ohio. Kim swan for Boise State University. Doug was going to swim at Clemson but a medical issue kept him out of the water for several years.

Here is a little background about me. I grew up in Ohio attended high school and college there. I am a retired Nuclear Medicine and Radiologic Technologist. After working for 37 years, I wanted to enjoy my “golden” years and teach my love of swim to others.

I swam competitively until I was 13. My parents moved from Columbus to a housing community in the middle of farm land during my 7th grade year.  

Dad and I would get up at 3:30 AM each day in the summer. He drove me 45 minutes to swim practice so that he could get back in time to get ready for work. I also had an afternoon workout. Practice was short but very intense. During the winter months, I swam in the evenings with my team. Long days for both of us for sure. My Mom had some medical issues so I had to give up swimming near the end of 8th grade year.

I grew up before Title IX so there were few sports for girls during my high school days. The high school I attended was in a small farming community and did not have swimming. I think you are very lucky that we have swim at IWA.

I was thrilled to be selected to take over swim here at school. I not only wanted to coach the varsity and middle school students, I wanted to make a difference with our littlest Angels. I worked hard to bring swim to the elementary level, too. Living on the coast, I feel it is important for everyone to know some basic swimming skills. 

Swimming teaches life skills. Some of those skills include learning to work with others – commonly called team work, attendance and arriving on time – especially if you plan on getting a paycheck in the future, and realizing that working hard pays off.  

I am proud to say that our varsity swim team has made it to State every year that IWA has had a team. We have had several medal winners over the years. I expect that our team this year will return to out TAPPS State Meet again.

I welcome anyone that would like to join our team. Swimming experience is not needed. Some of my best swimmers in the past never swam before joining our team. I will teach you the skills you need to make yourself a better swimmer.

Proudly, I have helped many of my swimmers to get college scholarships. I have had and currently have swimmers competing in NCAA DI, DII, DII, and NAIA divisions.  

Again, I would like to invite you or your student to give swimming a try. You will be surprised to see how fast they can become.