Although it is his first year as a full-time employee at Malvern, Scudder has been a part of the Malvern community for a large part of his life.
Coming out of college, Scudder took a part-time job to help coach kids in the Malvern swimming program. 33 years later, Scudder is now the head coach of the Malvern Swimming Association.
Scudder is originally from the Media area. Along with his parents, he has one sister who lives in Orlando, Florida.
Scudder has loved swimming since he was a kid. After performing well at Penncrest High School, he continued his swimming career for four years at the University of South Florida. After receiving a political science degree, he worked for Sears in a management position in their auto center.
It was during this time that Scudder established his first connection with Malvern. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a part-time job by Mr. Paul Hornsleth.
“When I got out of school, one of the girls I used to swim with’s mother was involved [at Malvern] with Paul Hornsleth, so she started the swim lesson program here, and then I got to know Paul,” Scudder said. “Paul offered me a job about 33 years ago, so I’ve actually been here as a coach, mostly part-time, for about 33-34 years.”
After 15 years, Scudder went back to school at West Chester University to earn a teaching degree. Having just retired, he spent 18 years teaching while maintaining his job at Malvern.
A couple years back, however, Scudder decided that he needed a break from coaching to prioritize his three children. Scudder takes great pride in saying that all three of them have swum with Malvern Swimming Association.
“I took a couple of years off to raise my family of three [kids], all of whom have swum here and two are still swimming here,” Scudder said. “I came back to work here about maybe 6 years ago, so this is kind of my second round with Malvern swimming, and then retired from teaching and became the full-time coach here.”
During his time here, Scudder has come to appreciate the environment Malvern has provided him over the past 33 years, especially when he went through a tough period in his life recently.
“It’s the family. My wife, about three years ago, faced breast cancer, and the whole Malvern team got together and did SignUp Genius and made meals for us. But even going back further than that, I feel like I was raised here when I got out of college by steering me in the right direction, making good choices, and facilitating the values Malvern has here. So I feel like its a fabric of who I am.”
Formerly, Scudder only had to take responsibility for certain groups of swimmers. That has changed with his new position.
“When I was part-time, I only was responsible for coaching certain age groups. Now, I have pretty much the whole group. We have about 118 kids in the program, and I can pretty much get around and see all of them.”
Since he is now the head of the Malvern Swimming Association, which is separate from Malvern Prep’s swim team, Scudder is the leader of each facet of the program. The Malvern Swimming Association is a club sport; while some Malvern kids swim, the club draws a lot of the swimmers come from other schools.
“I write all the practices and go through with the direction of the program as far as having to teach the kids on the swim team. I’m also an MSA manager, so Nikki [have to find out her last name and title] and I work closely together and we make decisions about the swim clinic, which is a little different than the swim team. And then the Learn to Swim program, so I kind of have my hand in all three of those pieces.”
Scudder’s coaching philosophy tries to provide a fun environment for the swimmers, but he tries to concentrate on their success when needed.
“I try to be firm. I try to make the kids have fun, and I try to make sure they are goal oriented, so wherever they are in the program, they’re trying to get better and reach whatever goals they have.”
Scudder is optimistic about what the upcoming season holds; though they lost some seniors, he sees a lot of young talent ready to step up.
“We have graduated three of our top kids, and they were the leadership of the team. One thing is building new leadership because we have a young team. The other thing is we have quite a few new swimmers who have come over through our relationship with Coach Schiller over at Chester Valley, and a couple other places. Just getting these new kids into our program, watching them do better, and see how they excel.”
According to Scudder, the head coaching position for MSA has only opened up 1 other time, so he feels fortunate to be in the position he now holds in the Malvern community.
“I feel really lucky to be here. This position has only opened up a few times,” Scudder said. “I just feel really lucky that the timing of it worked out for me that I could retire from teaching and take the full-time job here and work with some great people whom I’ve known for a long time, and work here at Malvern with all the people I’ve known from the past. Everyone’s really friendly here.”
Swimming truly is Scudder’s passion, and he is proud of each of the kids he has been able to coach in the past who have gone on to succeed.
“When you look up at the All-American board, I know a lot of those kids. I coached those kids,” Scudder said. “Now, when I look at them in their professional lives, it’s really rewarding to see them excel in their professions.”
