GALESBURG, Ill. — Galesburg High School might be losing its longtime coaching legend in swimming, but it is gaining a new title for its annual invitational swimming meet.
After the final home meet of the season on Oct. 18, VanHootegem was honored at a ceremony highlighting his decades of success leading the girls swimming program — and later the boys.
A surprise announcement
During the event, GHS athletic director Nick Young made a surprise announcement after speakers shared their memories of working with VanHootegem.
“Ray started 33 years ago; you have 29 invites, and he’s been part of all 29,” Young said. “And it doesn’t seem right to go forward with the invite without Ray, so we’ll no longer have the Silver Streak invite. Instead, it’ll be the Galesburg-Ray VanHootegem Invite. I’m super excited and proud to announce that, because it’s a small token of appreciation that you deserve.”
In his remarks, VanHootegem said the success of the swimming program was the result of everybody working together — his teams, parents and assistant coaches.
“It’s everything coming together when everyone shares the same focus and wants their child and their teammates to be better, and it just works,” he said.
He added, “It’s not always been 100% bliss, but 99% of it’s been great, and I don’t think anybody would trade that. So, I thank everybody for everything.”
Young described VanHootegem as “a great overall person” and “a great mentor for students.”
“We miss him this year in the building — his leadership and friendship,” Young said. “I’ve gotten to know Ray pretty closely the last couple of years as the athletic director, and it’s going to be a huge loss for us.”
VanHootegem retired from teaching in June.
Tributes from family and former swimmers
The ceremony also included emotional tributes from family members, former swimmers and coaching colleagues who reflected on his decades of leadership and mentorship.
VanHootegem’s daughter, Katie VanHootegem Dunn, is the swimming coach for Champaign Central High School. She had finished competing against her father just moments before, and her swimmers were in the audience.
“I’m gonna get a little choked up because everything that I do as a coach is based on what he taught me,” she said. “And I think my girls can attest, when they’re hearing people talk about my dad, that they can hear it sounds a lot like me.”
Holding VanHootegem’s grandson, she added, “I really owe my success and my team’s success to my dad, because he’s a great role model in and out of the pool. So, thank you, Dad.”
She added, perhaps jokingly, that now that he is retiring to Galesburg, he might join her in coaching.
Passing the program forward
Jake Miller, VanHootegem’s assistant coach this year, will take over the program next season.
“Swimming is not a sport that gets a lot of attention,” Miller said. “It requires kids to do a lot of work on their own, looking at the bottom of the pool all the time. Ray has found a way to make that productive and, in my opinion, has used the sport to help shape some of the best kids and best human beings out there.”
Lessons that last
Danielle Hulick, a former swimmer on VanHootegem’s teams in the late 1990s and a swimmer at Notre Dame, remembered the motivational comments he was known for — “You get out of it what you put in,” and “My grandmother can swim faster than that.”
“And another great thing is some of the life lessons that you (VanHootegem) taught,” she said. “You were such good friends with the other coaches from other teams. We used to have slumber parties — we’d go to UT, Moline — and some of our best friends were on those teams. It all comes from leadership. It comes from the top, and those things drizzle down.”
His former assistant coach, Tammy Qualls, spoke about working with VanHootegem. She noted that he is a perfectionist, so when he asked her to be his assistant, she knew everything would be top quality.
“He was very much a motivational person,” she said, “but the thing we love about Ray is that he would see each individual. It didn’t matter if they were the best on the team or not — he would work with them, and they would all become better. His goal wasn’t just about swimming and diving or the best scores. It was about making them better human beings for the future.”
By the numbers
Here are VanHootegem’s statistics as presented by Nick Young:
- Years coaching girls team: 33
- Record in dual meets: 184-73-1 (71%)
- Western Big 6 conference titles: 11 (eight consecutive)
- Sectional titles: three
- Undefeated dual-meet seasons: five
- Trips to state: 22
- Years coaching boys team: 14
- Record in dual meets: 93-40 (70%)
- Conference titles: three (all in a row)
- Undefeated dual-meet seasons: four (last four seasons)
- Trips to state: eight