For swim coach Chris Engledow, there wasn’t space to see color as a four-sport athlete while growing up on the Nez Perce Reservation in a town of 900 people.

“Maybe it made me a little tougher and I don’t even realize it,” Engledow, a registered Choctaw, said. “I still am very, very proud to be Native American.”

Engledow said his parents instilled in him the service side of coaching that helps others. But he also combined the different personalities of the coaches he encountered to create his own style.

There was the “crazy, crazy” basketball coach who was extra passionate. There was the track coach who was laid back, going so far as to “put his feet up and write a workout and never say a word.” There was the football coach that was “super hyper and real young, real knowledgeable, and always played with us.”

But swimming was different.

“My dad was the one who taught me the guts and passion for the sport and for life that it takes,” Engledow, said of his father and first swim coach. “It’s amazing how far that can get you… He taught me on any given day, that anyone could be the best if they put their mind to it.”

Engledow was quite successful under his father’s tutelage. He reached the top 16 in the 50 butterfly and the 50 breaststroke when he was 12 years old, as strictly a summer swimmer. The local pools closed for the other seasons, he said.

Going to Zones up and down the west coast for a few years made a big impression on the young Engledow, he said. At 11 years old, he traveled to the University of Southern California and was in awe of the Heisman Trophies that glittered in the Hall of Fame.

“Being a little Choctaw kid from tiny little Idaho, it made a real big impression on me,” said Engledow, who was – and remains – a USC fan. “Swimming opened up a huge, huge window for me at a young age.”

Engledow ended up finding a swimming career at Northern Arizona University, which was home to a Division I swim team coached by the “hugely inspirational” Andy Johns. His sophomore year, then aged 20, Engledow wasn’t fast enough to make that team.

He practiced for a year on his own, swimming with 10 and 11-year-olds to improve.

“I finally made it. I remember one of the best phone calls of my life was calling my parents, telling them I had made the Division I swim team there.”

His final year, he even captained that Division I Lumberjacks team. It’s also where he met his wife, an Olympic Trials swimmer in the mile who now works as an emergency room provider.

In more recent years, college swimming has continued to have an impact on Engledow. University of Idaho aquatic director Dan Lawson is a resource for Engledow for all things swimming, including off the pool deck, too.  

Engledow, now 44 and the sole coach of four swim groups, said he has found his own style after seeing so many coaching philosophies.

“Learn everything that people have to say,” he said. “You don’t have to do them all or pay attention to them all, but you need to have the other side of it, too.”

He started coaching when his 19-year-old son was born and said he basically raised his three kids on the pool deck. Engledow figured that probably sounded like a familiar story to a lot of coaches.

“I started those junior groups for my own children,” he said. “I’m just trying to provide. I realized the only thing I’m trying to do is provide a good environment for my own kids. If anybody else wants to join me, great.”

His proudest moments as a coach also reflect that familial and community feeling. One memorable proud moment that came to mind was his son winning a Zone meet when he was 12.

“The buttons were popping off of my chest on my shirt,” he recalled. Then, a few years later, he got a phone call offering him a swimming scholarship. Engledow said there is a picture of the family celebrating that moment hanging on the wall today.

Giving back to those who are less fortunate is another source of pride for Engledow, who, with his wife, fostered two African-American children. Recently, he was proud to say, they graduated from high school and are going to college.

He also has coached the Special Olympics for over 20 years, which “has really brought tears to my eyes. It’s just a tremendous amount of joy for some of those things.”

This year has been a challenge unlike any other, Engledow said. In a typical year, he only takes August off. But as we have all experienced by now, 2020 is not a typical year.

Instead, this year, he was shut down for four months between March and June. Since he straddles the state border between Washington and Idaho, he was dealing with two states’ regulations. He found pool space and has been adhering to new capacity guidelines.

His biggest challenge is figuring out how to have meets and keep his swimmers motivated.

“I’m really having to come up with unique practice plans, trying to still have ‘seasons’ and figure out how to get them to improve,” he said. “It’s very difficult to have best times at practice.”

But overall, he is encouraging fellow coaches to stay the course.

“I hope that there’s a lot of people who can withstand this and stay strong and stay motivated,” he said. “Swimming isn’t less important now than it was eight months ago.”