GARDNER – Feeling numb with sadness and still shocked, former Gardner High swimmer Laura Wareck reached back in time and told a story about her beloved coach Don Lemieux, who died suddenly Saturday.
“Swimming was sometimes hard for me because I wasn’t as fast or talented as my friends,” Wareck said this week. “One day when I was a freshman he made a remark about how I was ‘the least talented swimmer’ he had ever coached, but ‘one of the hardest-working.’ ”
Lemieux went on to tell Wareck that she had a choice. She could feel sorry for herself and be miserable or she could focus on all the amazing things that come with being on a team — the opportunity to compete, travel, get better, grow as a person and eventually swim in college.
Wareck went on to become one of the top swimmers on Gardner High’s 1999 state championship team and later swam at Kenyon College, one of the nation’s best NCAA Division 3 programs.
“His advice to work hard, live in the moment and enjoy everything life has to offer has always stuck with me,” Wareck said. “We truly have lost a great one.”
Lemieux, 65, who stood well under 6 feet but could dunk a basketball when he captained the Springfield College team, indeed had a special, God-given coaching gift, the ability to motivate and inspire gifted swimmers and the not so gifted.
He coached Gardner High to 16 state swimming championships, including 15 straight from 1994 to 2008. He was also head coach of the Greenwood Swim Club team and superintendent of Greenwood Memorial Pool since 1980.
Funeral services will be held Monday from the Boucher Funeral Home, 110 Nichols St. with a Mass at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, 135 Nichols St. Calling Hours will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the funeral home.
Samantha Arsenault Livingstone, Wareck’s 1999 Gardner High teammate, reached the pinnacle of her sport — a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. And Lemieux’s profound influence didn’t end there.
“After the Olympics and before swimming in college, I needed shoulder surgery and I was also battling depression and an eating disorder. Don helped me heal,” Livingstone said. “He was always such a father figure to me.”
After graduating from the University of Georgia and getting married, Livingstone started a business and had four daughters, one who needed open-heart surgery.
“That’s some hard stuff where you feel like you can fail, but when tough things happen, I tap into thinking about all the hard work and training with Don that got me to the top of the podium,” she said. “Those skills still help me survive and thrive.”
Erica Meissner was another outstanding Gardner High swimmer and a 2004 Olympic trials finalist who went on to swim at Auburn University.
“Lemieux’s presence couldn’t be ignored,” she said. “He was charismatic, brazen and often provocative. He was coolly confident and relentlessly optimistic. He lived his life with such spirit and authenticity, and he demanded the same from all who entered his circle.”
When Meissner first met Lemieux she was admittingly shy and reserved.
“Today, I walk tall and proud,” she said. “I welcome the discomfort in the pursuit of excellence, see humor in most everything and am unafraid to use my voice to speak the truth. These things I will carry forever, and these things I owe to him.”
Sam Folger is one of Lemieux’s recent prized pupils and now a freshman scholarship swimmer at Penn State.
“I don’t really know where I’d be without Coach Lemieux,” he said. “He made us all harder workers, better people, better thinkers, better sons, daughters, brothers, sisters. He took me to a level I never thought possible and helped me achieve my dreams.”
Former Gardner High Principal Robert Gillis recalled Lemieux’s concern for his swimmers beyond racing.
“Don could always be seen around the school, checking on the academics of his swimmers or regularly attending athletic events,” Gillis said. “He not only produced world-class athletes but also world-class people.”
Another former Greenwood swimmer, Erin Howarth Garriepy, who was a three-time All-American at the University of Texas added, “Lemieux entered my life at exactly the right time. When people talk about how you live your dash, the years between birth and death, there is one word I can say about him: impact. He molded me into the person I am today. He had a gift of finding your inner fire and bringing you to mental spaces you didn’t think you could go.”
Kristy Martin Jones, the head coach at Babson College, swam for Lemieux at Gardner High, went on to star at Indiana University and later became an assistant coach when Lemieux’s Greenwood program moved to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
“He was larger than life,” she said. “His positivity was contagious, his motivation was inspiring and his ability to instill discipline, hard work and loyalty in his swimmers was unmatched. He touched so many lives, and I’m so grateful that I was one of them.”
Melinda Hochard Lucier, a star swimmer and member of the Gardner High Hall of Fame, said she’s forever grateful for the life lessons.
“Coach Lemieux showed us that consistency and hard work leads to greatness, and failing at something is the best way to learn,” she said. “I am a stronger person because of him.”
Karri Charpentier Legault, one of the many state record-holders Lemieux helped mentor at Gardner High, offered this important perspective: “Mr. Lemieux didn’t just simply wear the hat of coach, he was so much more than that. He helped us all feel welcomed, encouraged, inspired, empowered and so cared for. The legacy he is leaving behind is truly limitless. He made us better human beings and that ripple effect cannot be measured.”
Livingstone seconded that comment.
“What a perfect metaphor,” she said. “I can see it, that ripple in the pool, it keeps moving on, outward. That’s Coach Lemieux. He’s still with us as we all move on.”