‘We are family inside and outside the pool’
It doesn’t happen that often but every now and then a family gathering will extend past the dinner table into the swimming pool.
There are numerous siblings who play together but only perhaps a handful of father/sons, coaching quadruples in swimming.
One of these cases is happening with the Pittsburgh Stingrays with assistant coach Norman Gregory and his three sons.
Norman Gregory III, Isaiah Gregory and Kimani Gregory are record-breaking brothers who are all coached by legendary Hosea Holder at the Kingsley Center in East Liberty.
“The Gregory family took their kids to three different clubs and nobody would accept them and their mother happened to be driving past the Kingsley and seen some kids coming out in swim gear,” said coach Holder. “Now they are breaking so many records that many clubs don’t want to compete against them.”
Coach Holder has coached the Gregory boys everyday, even throughout the summer, but he is not the only one impressed by their progress.
“All three boys are good in all sports but might start to concentrate on swimming only because of scholarship opportunity,” said Rita Gregory, senior vice president of Champions Enterprises and the boys aunt. “They were winning so much gold that I would sometimes wear the medals. Young kids as well as parents ask for their autographs.”
Isaiah Gregory holds every swimming record at Linton Middle School, in Penn Hills, but one. His older brother Norman holds the other record.
“They are good kids and very good academically. Very mannerable and have two great parents,” said Rita. “But, they are very competitive. Norman broke all the records at Linton and then Isaiah broke all but one of Norman’s records and the youngest brother Kimani wants to break all of Isaiah’s and Norman’s records.”
The Pittsburgh Stingrays practice Monday thru Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and that’s a far cry from summer break workouts. During those three-hour practice sessions, where the team churned out a few 1,000 yards daily. The coaches push the swimmers to their limits on those days, but the athletes reap the rewards during competition.
“Swimming is a year round sport that requires training, dedication and commitment. To be successful you must have the backing of a program and by parents or guardians,” said coach Holder. “We practice during the summer everyday from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Highland Park. Most kids are sleep during those hours and the only people our kids see is people walking their dogs or jogging.”
Coaches Holder and Gregory keep the team moving forward in a sport that tests an athletes will, determination and pain tolerance. They Stingrays swimmers are successful in both regional and national tournaments.
“We have less than 25 members and we are beating clubs that have over 200 members,” said coach Holder. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight it’s the fight in the dog! I would like to see more black kids get involved in swimming because 58% of the drowning in America are black. We have produced so many champions that people have accused us of giving pep pills to our athlete. Other clubs refuse to believe that black kids could dominate in swimming.”
It seems as though everyone from Pittsburgh knows something about the 1979 Pirates, even if they hadn’t been born by then.
The team that came to be identified as the “We Are Family” group showed why it was tagged with that slogan after winning a World Series title.
Like the ’79 Pirates, this Stingrays club can do it in similar fashion—by becoming a family.