Ultimate Swimming coach Pierre Ruffin empowering black and Latino swimmers

“My coaches used to always tell us to remember that you were just as good as everybody else.”

Pierre Ruffin, head coach of Ultimate Swimming, a year-round competitive swim club in Hillside, Ill., described the challenges of being one of the few African-American coaches for Illinois Swimming. Back in the 1950s and 1960s when racial discrimination was the norm, Ruffin said athletes had to produce great results to prove they were just as good as a Caucasian athlete and coach.

Ruffin said he was often questioned at swim meets for why he was standing on the deck since only officials, coaches, athletes and volunteer timers were allowed on the deck.

“I could understand at the time because they didn’t realize or understand that there were black coaches or black coaches trying to get involved in the sport at that time,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin-- like the author of this blog, a club coach for Illinois Swimming said athletes are not special because of their race, ethnicity or gender, but because of their talent.

“The only special thing about you is your ability to swim like everybody else, your ability to work hard, your ability to be able to say, “Here I am. I can do this and get out and prove it” and that’s the only way I think you can really help minorities in this sport of swimming,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin said he hopes to pave a way for future coaches.

“When other minority coaches want to get involved with swimming, I feel that they will, because of what I’m able to do, it’ll make it easier for other people to give them an opportunity to coach and be a head coach and not feel that just because I’m a minority, I’m unable to do this or to do that or to train their kids and bring them to a level of excellent swimming,” Ruffin said.