USMS Top Ten Achievements – 22 individual
LMSC Positions:
2021 to 2022 – New England LMSC Immediate Past Board Chair
2019 to 2021 – New England LMSC Board Chair
2014 to 2019 – New England LMSC Coaches Chair. Created a series of local clinics for coaches and swimmers and scholarships for coach education.
2013 – New England LMSC Asst. Webmaster
Coaching Positions:
2010 to 2022 – Head Coach & Club Manager, Great Bay Masters Swimming, Inc. (GBM), Dover, N.H.
2018 – Started GBM’s annual “April is Adult Learn to Swim Month” program at the Dover pool, expanded to the Portsmouth pool
Meet Director Roles:
2022 – Portsmouth Mini Meet, Portsmouth, N.H. (30 participants)
2011 to 2022 – Jenny Thompson LCM Mini Meet, Dover, N.H. (80-100 participants)
2012 to 2020 – Exeter SCM Mini Meet, Exeter, N.H. (90-100 participants)
2010 to 2014 – New England LMSC SCM Championship Meet, Boston, Mass. (3 days, 400+ swimmers)
Other Assignments & Honors:
2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 – USMS National Coaches Clinic Attendee
2019 – USMS Dorothy Donnelly Service Award
2019 – New England LMSC Contributor of the Year Award
2018 – USMS Convention Task Force
2014 – New England LMSC Coach of The Year Award
Crystie has been a swimmer her entire life. When she relocated to New Hampshire, she was happy to find a robust adult swim community through a college teammate who suggested she join Great Bay Masters. She was quickly integrated into a wonderful community of well-organized and spirited people.
As the team evolved and roles changed Crystie started coaching workouts and becoming more involved with club and meet management. Her role quickly expanded to running multiple mini meets and workouts at two sites for the club. Crystie found herself on the regional stage while taking over the coordination of the NELMSC Short Course Meters Championship Meet hosted by Great Bay Masters in 2010. She continued to run this meet until it was transitioned to a new host site in 2015.
After meeting more of the regional volunteers, Crystie was encouraged to get involved at that level. In 2014 the NELMSC Coaches Chair role opened and when Crystie suggested this role become more robust by offering local coach education and networking, she was offered the opportunity to bring that vision to fruition. During her six years as the NELMSC Coaches Chair Crystie also delved into volunteering at the national level for USMS by joining the National Coaches Committee from 2016 to 2018 and then moving over to the LMSC Development Committee from 2019 to present.
Crystie attended her first USMS Annual Meeting as a delegate in 2017 and has been a regular attendee in person, or virtually, ever since. An understanding of what is happening across the country and at the national level is incredibly helpful to better support and bring new ideas to our local swimmers and programs in New England.
Following intentional succession planning Crystie was elected to the NELMSC Chairperson role for a two-year stint from 2019 to 2021. This is when the pandemic created everlasting change in our lives and was a very atypical experience as a volunteer and club manager. Crystie focused on getting volunteers virtually connected regularly to help maintain a sense of community and share best practices for dealing with a whole new set of restrictions around swimming.
During the pandemic, Crystie worked to keep the Great Bay Masters community together by coordinating virtual socials such as online game nights and video workouts that included the novelty of “Soup Can Swimming”. She created a support group called “Accountabilibuddies” where each week participants were given five days’ worth of workouts and mental health practices. Participation was tracked and points were scored and celebrated to help keep people engaged and physically active while in lockdown.
After the excitement of the pandemic Crystie stepped back from the role of Chairperson to past chairperson and continued to help support the NELMSC board and volunteers in new roles. She continued to coach and run swim meets until January of 2023 when her family relocated to Colorado.
Crystie will forever be grateful for the amazing community of swimmers across New England and all of the energy and effort that goes into providing the best adult swimming experience! The opportunities to grow as a person, a volunteer, a swimmer and a friend while in New England are stamped on her very soul.