For most of the past 18 years, Bruce Ebersole would spend a lot of his free time reading up on coaching techniques and tactics to help give his St. Aloysius swim teams an edge.

Lately, though, he said he’d felt himself slipping. The enthusiasm wasn’t there, and those hours studying swimming were used on other pursuits. That’s when he knew it was time to hand the reins of St. Al’s program to someone else.

Ebersole, the only coach St. Al has had since its swim team was started in 1998, is retiring after 18 seasons, one state championship and several top-five state meet finishes. He’ll turn 61 in December and said his age and waning enthusiasm played the biggest parts in his decision.

“It’s probably just the energy level. I’m not so young anymore,” Ebersole said. “I felt like my performance as a coach was starting to slip. When I was younger I would spend hours learning more about the sport. Now I get home at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and I feel wiped out.”

Ebersole has been involved in swimming his entire life. He swam competitively in high school and his mother-in-law, the late Laurin Stamm, was one of the founding members of the Vicksburg Swim Association.

Ebersole’s three sons — Alan, Bern and Jase — all swam for him at St. Al and competed at the Division I level in college. Alan and Bern both swam at Princeton, and Jase at Boston College. When Alan, the oldest, was about to enter high school Bruce approached St. Al’s administration about starting a swim team.

A number of other children who had participated in the VSA and attended St. Al also joined up, and the program enjoyed years of success under Ebersole’s leadership. The Mississippi High School Activities Association grouped schools of all sizes together into one class for swimming, which has limited participation statewide. Despite being a Class 1A school it held its own against the biggest. After the MHSAA split swimming into two classes, St. Al won the Class I championship in 2011.

Jase, the youngest of Ebersole’s children, graduated from high school in 2007, but Bruce stayed on as coach for another decade.

“It was a great experience for me. I started for my children, but there were other VSA swimmers that came to St. Al. It was an opportunity to provide the same experience for them that I enjoyed at their age,” Ebersole said. “The school has always been so great and supportive over the years, and their commitment to the team has been great.”

St. Al athletic director Mike Jones said Ebersole’s professionalism and passion for the sport and school were key factors in his success.

“From the standpoint of all of us athletic directors, swimming was something we didn’t have to worry about. We had a coach who took care of it all. We didn’t have to go behind Bruce and check him,” Jones said. “From the standpoint of the school itself, he’s a swimmer and married into a swimming family who are St. Aloysius people. We understand why he’s leaving. We’re just very fortunate to have had him for those 18 years.”

St. Al moved from the MHSAA to the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools in 2015. Ebersole coached St. Al to second-place finishes in the MAIS Overall Meet each of the past two seasons, but said big differences in how swimming was handled by the state’s two governing bodies and their member schools factored into his decision to retire.

Only a handful of schools emphasize swimming in the MAIS. Only 16 competed at this year’s state meet that included all classifications, and only about half of those scored a significant number of points. The MAIS season is also about half as long as the MHSAA season. The MAIS state meet was held in late September and the MHSAA meet in late October.

“It’s not really a varsity sport. For a lot of schools it’s a field trip in a lot of ways,” Ebersole said. “For us it’s six weeks after school begins and the season is over. A lot of our swimmers are used to four- or five-month seasons. It messes up their training schedule. I’m hoping the next coach can make some changes in the Association in regards to swimming.”

Ebersole’s future plans mostly include a throttling back of his schedule. The retired civil engineer teaches part-time at St. Al and Jackson State University, and wasn’t sure how much of that schedule he would maintain after this school year. He plans to do some volunteer work in the community as well.
He said he’ll help the new coach get his feet under him if asked.

“I’ll assist however I can assist, but I don’t expect that coach to coach the same way. He’ll have more energy than I did,” Ebersole said. “I’ll support that transition. Whatever they may want, I’ll provide. I’m sure I’ll keep showing up at the pool and cheering them on.”

As for his legacy, Ebersole said he hopes it’s a simple one — that he gave his swimmers a chance to participate in a sport and that they wound up better off for it.

“I just hope they remember me as someone who gave of their time to make a positive difference in the student-athletes here. People remember the teams that they participated on and look on them fondly,” Ebersole said. “When you get people you coached long ago that make comments about you, you realize you did make a difference. That’s rewarding. There’s a lot to learn about being good citizens from participating in athletics.”