By SwimSwam Contributors on SwimSwam
Courtesy: Grace Korey
Humble – that’s my mom for you.
She never introduces herself as a Team USA Junior National Team Coach or as the head coach of a team that won four back-to-back national titles under her leadership. Instead, she simply says: “Hi, I’m Mary Korey, Grace’s mom, and I coach swimming.”
In fact, she does just about anything to avoid the topic of her achievements on the pool deck. While being humble is much appreciated, especially in today’s world, I wanted to honor her this Mother’s Day by doing what she won’t: singing her praises. I want to let people know who she is, what she has accomplished, and what she means to me, and so many others as not just a coach, but a mother.
My mom got into competitive swimming as an assistant coach when I was 11, with my team at the time, the Somerset Hills YMCA. She started out with the 8 & unders, and she absolutely loved it. She later progressed to coaching more age groups, and eventually started lead coaching 13-14 and senior groups.
I saw Coach Mary as the mother of the team due to the immediate comfort I felt with her. Before races, I can get quite worked up and she would always be my balance to bring me back to a stable ground. I also felt very understood with her which brought lots of peace. Which kinda ties into your other question. This was a HUGE part of why I liked working with her. She is also a big motivator and I needed that sometimes. But all in all, Coach Mary is SO underrated and will forever hold a special place in my heart. – Leah Shackley (Junior National Team)
Fast forward to the peak of COVID, and our team, SHY, merged with another team to become Greater Somerset County YMCA, also known as GSCY Storm. After the departure of our head coach, she was asked to take on the interim position. She was reluctant, as she had never dealt with budgeting, computer systems, or meet management at all. However, she accepted the title and soon became the full-time head coach of the team.
She then went on to win 2022 YMCA LC Nationals, 2023 YMCA SC and LC Nationals, and 2024 SC Nationals. Four titles in a row. While doing this, she was also selected to serve as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2023 World Aquatic Junior Championships and as a head coach for the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
Coach Mary feels like the mother of the team because she treats all of us as her kids. She not only wants us to swim well but she cares about how we do at school and wants us to have good relationships. If we have a problem she’s happy to talk to us about it and tries her best to give advice or just be a good listener.
My favorite part of working with Coach Mary is her humor and enthusiasm on deck. She’s always excited and loves to share in our accomplishments, even if it is out of the pool. You always feel like you can talk to her and you want to share your successes because you know she’ll be proud. – Colleen Bull (GSCY Storm, Indiana commit)
If that wasn’t enough, she attended the Olympic Trials in 2024 with four athletes, and watched two GSCY alumni, Matt Fallon and Jack Alexy, make the US Olympic Team. She makes sure to support their legacy by keeping them involved with the team, even while they are in college, and making sure that they are recognized throughout the community.
My mom’s accomplishments on paper are beyond impressive, especially given her relatively short coaching career. While I think those things are important for people to know, there is more to her than statistics.
Why did I see Mary as the mother of the team?
Mary is so much more than a coach to the GSCY Storm athletes. I’d show up 45 minutes early to practice every day so I could sit in her office and chat, both about swimming and other things going on in our lives. It was incredibly obvious that Mary saw us as more than just swimmers; we were always seen as people before athletes. She always made efforts to get to know us and our families as well as she could. In particular, she knew my mother was rather tough on me, and always provided comfort when I needed it most. I knew she would always be there for me when I needed to laugh, chat, or hysterically cry.
I’m lucky to say that I’ve known Mary for about 10 years now. Though she wasn’t always my coach, swimming in her group the past two years was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Her presence on deck was always a pleasure; from her fun outfits (specifically the winter hat), to her contagious laugh and hilarious remarks, going to practice was never a burden. She generously stocked a snack cart for all of us with our favorite foods, let me braid her hair at every meet (which I know she hated), and even let us go down the slides in our tech suits after a suit up practice. If she could tell our group was having a particularly rough time, she would plan something fun for practice that she knew would lighten our mood.
In all, Mary did an amazing job of knowing what each swimmer needed, when we needed it. I couldn’t have asked for a better coach to prepare me, both as a human and as an athlete, for the real world. – Emily Thompson (GSCY Storm → Stanford freshman)
If I’m being honest, she’s the reason I am still so involved with the sport today. I have been teaching swimming for the past five years, coaching for the past three, and I am in my 14th year of being an athlete, now on a college team. I have learned so much from just watching her work. I’ve often found myself sitting on the pool deck after my own practice has ended, reading over her workout plan, and watching her explain and run the sets for her own group. When I want to better my set writing skills, I’ll open up her Google Drive folder of past workouts and look through them one by one, asking her the thought behind every piece. Everything she does has a purpose, and she will never not be able to explain that purpose. That’s the key that makes her coaching style so attractive and successful.
She cares. She cares about every little detail.
Coach Mary was the mother of the team because she not only guided you in the way a mother is supposed to lead, but she was there to help emotionally as well. Mary prioritized the way you felt and believed that swimming was a sport that was more mental than it was physical. She was always there to talk if you needed it and made sure that her swimmers knew she was there for you. I always felt that I could talk to her both about swimming related struggles and non related ones.
Mary stepped into a big role of being head coach which was a huge change for her. I loved watching how dedicated she was to become a strong leader and how badly she wanted to learn more for the benefit of her swimmers. She was super flexible to what her swimmers needed and was always willing to compromise for the best output. Another great thing about working with Mary was her ability to have a relationship with her swimmers on a personal level. Mary often felt like a friend, with the ability to coach at the same time. It created both a comfortable but hard working environment. –Anna Moesch (GSCY Storm & Junior National Team → Virginia freshman)
And she doesn’t just care about swimmers as swimmers. She also cares about swimmers as people – humans – kids that are still growing and learning how to get through this world. My mom is not just my mom, she also serves as a mother figure to so many athletes. She is truly the mother of the team.
Yes, it may be biased coming from me, but I am the one who sees what she does off the pool deck. The countless phone calls with parents, the late nights trying to make the budget, and the hundreds of travel hours. That’s something a lot of people don’t understand; she’s not just working when she’s at the pool, she’s working when she’s home, too.
Does she have to? No.
But does she do it? Yes.
She does it because she truly wants to see each and every one of her athletes thrive. She wants them to love the sport. She wants them to improve.
I am proud to be able to say happy Mother’s Day to a strong female leader who has made a positive impact on so many people’s lives. So happy Mother’s Day to you, Mom – and all of the swim moms out there who make this sport an amazing one. I love you.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Raised On The Pool Deck: How My Mom Built a Team and a Family
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