Get to know Ashley Ridge HS head swim coach Victoria Merritt
SUMMERVILLE, S.C. — The Ashley Ridge High School Swamp Fox swim team is lead with excellence by head coach Victoria Merritt, and assistant coaches Larky Shuler and Liam Johnson (former AR grad and swimmer). Since the fall of 2014, Victoria Merritt has proudly lead the Varsity and JV Ashley Ridge High School swim team as head coach. They truly have one of the best, as Coach Merritt was the ARHS and DD2 Teacher of the Year in 2019 and she has also been named Region Coach of the Year for several years. She is passionate about helping young athletes not only excel in the pool but in the classroom and life as well. “I want the student athletes who are a part of the swim team to take with them valuable life lessons like time management, commitment, and knowing that they can do anything they put their mind to,” Merritt shared. “I also want them to remember they found a lifelong sport that they can stay active and healthy in for the rest of their lives.”
Swimming has been a big part Coach Merritt’s life long before she came to ARHS. She shares: “I grew up swimming in the Charleston area for SMRT, Newington, and Summerville High School. I found a passion in coaching young swimmers and that ultimately led me to wanting to become a teacher. I loved the sport of swimming and all of the ‘doors’ it opened for me in life, and now I just want my own athletes to love the sport as much as I do. I started coaching Newington (a local summer league team) in 07’ and have been coaching there ever since.” Prior to coaching at ARHS, she also coached at Spartanburg High School.
One of Merritt’s favorite memories was when the ARHS won their first region championship in 2018. “We were the underdogs, and it was an awesome way to end the season,” she shared. But when it comes to her proudest moment as a coach, it is hard to pick just one. Merritt says: “But it would definitely be when a swimmer has an incredible race, and they look over on the side of the pool deck to find you and they are so proud, and you get to share in their excitement and joy with them because you know all of that hard work paid off!”
Over the last eight years coaching the ARHS swim team, Coach Merritt has words of wisdom to young athletes and other coaches who are just starting out: “Trust the process. Our program wasn’t built in a year. It took time and patience and hard work, but it has been worth every step of the journey.”
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