Getting to Know Coach Stephanie

Many of you haven’t had the chance to meet her yet (if you have younger swimmers), but Coach Stephanie Wolfle plays a key role at NOVA. She coaches Senior Development Silver, which bridges NOVA’s age group swimmers to the senior level groups. She’s also a NOVA parent, so she brings the ability to “see it from both sides” to her coaching. She shepherds swimmers at an age where many of them are deciding whether to commit to a more rigorous training schedule, and, we’re happy to say, her reputation as a great coach works in NOVA’s favor!

Big questions first: Just how many children do you and your husband, James, have?

Just four…Abigail (age 9), Matthew (6), Jacob (4), and Noah will be 2 when this comes out.

Are you absolutely positive that there aren’t more?

Four kids is the perfect number for our family. Anymore, and I might go crazy.

Do swimmers make good baby sitters?

Nope…I always need them during practice times and they can’t help out then! No, honestly, we have had some amazing swimmers help us with the kids over the years, and they were great with them.

How many in your birth family and your rank in all of that?

There are three girls, and I am the oldest.

Astrological sign?

Pisces.

How many years have you been coaching?

Fourteen years as an USA Swimming coach, and too many years in summer league to even think about counting!

Kindly trace that coaching pedigree for the good folks of NOVA.

I was with CGBD [Coast Guard Blue Dolphins in Yorktown, Virginia] for eleven years. I moved through the program from Assistant Senior Coach to Head Developmental Coach, and then on to Head Age Group Coach. Since it was a smaller team, I got to work with most levels of swimmers in a given evening as either head coach or assistant. I joined NOVA in 2011.

Your husband, James, was also once a swim coach. Did you meet while coaching?

We did! We met at Summer Age Group Champs 2001 in Manassas during warm ups on Saturday morning! Love at first sight!

You have a daughter, Abby, in the program. Parents want their children to learn to swim. That next step – swim team – how did Abby decide on that?

It was a family decision really…we allow our kids to choose a variety of activities for each year with our input, and with her love of the water, the fact both of her parents were swimmers and coaches, and all the fun she had in summer league swimming, it was a natural fit.

In your opinion, if you and James each became swim coach potentates of separate space alien colonies of several million somewhere in the Pegasus galaxy, how would your teams differ? In a winner take all for dominion of the Pegasus galaxy, whose team would win and why?

We would have fairly balanced teams…but there would be no survivors. James and I both HATE to lose, and it would be at battle to the death!

Rapid fire questions- shortest answer possible:

   Favorite cuisine? Mexican

   Favorite restaurant? Melting Pot

   Favorite (non-swimming) sport? Football

   Favorite all-time TV show? NCIS

   Favorite movie? Men in Black

   Favorite music group? All country music

   Favorite vacation spot? Beach

   Favorite book? All of them

You have coached for other teams. What is it that makes NOVA different or special?

The ONEness. I love the fact that swimmers say they swim for NOVA with such pride. The coaches and staff all feel the same way, which gets me excited to step on deck each day.

Your favorite other coach or NOVA story?

I first met Diane when I was 13 and she was one of my coaches on a short course Zone trip to Buffalo, NY. We flew that year and she and another coach laughed and picked on me all weekend because I was shocked that it was cold enough for the LAKE to freeze.

Favorite coaching memory?

Just one? Nope, can’t do it. All the firsts stick out for me, when each swimmer, no matter the level, reaches that next level from first B time to Olympic trails finalist…they all amaze me.

How do you best waste time (or is it possible for a wife and mother of four) to waste time?

Reading. Not a time waste, but I have to finish the story NOW. It makes for some late nights and morning dishes to wash when I get started on a good book too late in the day.

What mentor, family friend or former coach do you value most after so many years coaching?

Steve Griffin [former head coach with Yorktown’s Coast Guard Blue Dolphins team] really got me started in the sport. I had coached summer league for years but didn’t have a plan besides grad school after a European adventure after college. He took a risk on me and allowed me to work with the top swimmers and to drive him and all his coaching friends crazy asking thousands of questions. He always introduced me to everyone he knew at every meet from local to Nationals so that I could learn.

If there was a Wolfle family reality TV show, what would its title be?

“Controlling Chaos”!

You are NOVA’s Senior Development Silver coach and that is a group you really enjoy coaching. What about that group makes it your favorite? What is it that you most want that group to learn in their time with you?

I love the diversity and the potential of the group. We have swimmers from all walks…those that are just starting to swim and need to learn it all, to those who are great swimmers and want to do it all, including 5 other sports. I love that we can make it all work in one group and achieve such great things. I want swimmers to work hard and smart, and to always remember that hard, smart work pays off. Not always on your time line, but it does in the end.