Winning a YMCA National Championship was a dream come true for Caitlin Tycz, but for her coach, Jay Morissette, of the Long Reach Swim Club, it was yet another example of how making training fun makes everything else falls into place, often first. At the YMCA National Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina this past March, Caitlin won her second national title, capturing the 100 meter butterfly in a record time of 52.43, the sixth fastest time for a 16- year-old in U.S. history.

Still, for Morissette, who, over the past 20 years has had 12 LRSC swimmers compete in the nationals, awards and records aren’t what it’s all about. Pointing to a stack of books on a shelf in his cramped office at the Bath Area Family YMCA, the coach says, “There’s all kinds of techniques and systems and protocols that teams use to motivate. But for me, it’s just this: Fun. Swimming has got to be fun; otherwise, what’s the use?

For Caitlin and Nate Samson, another LRSC trophy winner at the recent nationals, having fun is what helped them through years of practice and dedication at the expense of what some might consider a more sociable life.

“Last year,” Caitlin recalled, “after I won the 50 meter butterfly, I realized I could take the 100, I could do it. So I set my goal and worked the whole year with that in mind and it’s just so great that all the hard work paid off.”

“It’s hard work,” Caitlin says, “and it takes up most of your time, but there’s nothing like the excitement of a meet. You do your best to prepare and when your hard work pays off. That’s when it’s really fun.”

Nate Samson, a junior at Brunswick High School, came away with a runner-up trophy in the 100-meter butterfly, in which he broke the record set by Maine’s Olympic swimmer Ian Crocker for that and the 200 yard Individual Medley.

Both Samson and Tycz began with the Long Reach Swim Club when they were seven years old.

“There’s nothing like being on a swim team,” Tycz says. “We spend eight months, every day, hours on end swimming and trying to succeed to our goals.”

Samson said he didn’t get serious about swimming right away. “I wasn’t really serious about swimming until I was about 14 years old,” Samson says. “Then I began setting goals. Like Crocker’s record. That was a goal I set and I just knew I could do it.”

Samson will attend Florida State University on scholarship, Tycz will return for her senior year at Brunswick High School. The two national champions are just the most recent of over 300 that have gone to the nationals since Morissette began coaching LRSC over 30 years ago. He estimates he has coached “about 5,000” swimmers.