A decorated swimmer for Bridgeport High School and West Virginia University, Michael Walker realized shortly after his BHS graduation that he wanted to pursue a swim coach career. But he sure never dreamed he would be doing that in Guatemala.

 

But along with rainforests, ancient Mayan sites and volcanoes, the Central American country has 27-year-old Gisela Morles, an aspiring swim champion. Her dreams are big. So are those of Guatemala.

 

“The plan is to build a national team,” said Walker, whose official title is head coach of the Guatemalan National Swim Team at Guatemala Aquatic Federation. “As of right now, the big championship meet is the Pan American games in Toronto this July. So it’s kind of really based off that and we’ll see then what the next step will be. The goal is to build a centralized location to train the best swimmers in Guatemala.”

 

For the time being, Walker is coaching only Morles, who found him through Sergio Lopez Miro, former head coach at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla. A native of Spain and bronze medalist in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul , Miro coached Walker at WVU – where the 2005 BHS alum shattered school records in the 400-meter individual medley and was ranked 19^th in the nation in 200-meter breaststroke. Miro subsequently took a job as head swim coach at the private school and made Walker part of his coaching staff.

 

“Gisela contacted Sergio back in 2012 or 2013 and he’s been helping for a couple years,” Walker said.

 

But in November of 2014, Miro took a position with the Singapore Swimming Association and the Singapore Sports Institute, heading up the Singapore swim program. Among athletes with whom he had previously worked was Singapore’s Joseph Isaac Schooling, who became one of the best college-level fly swimmers in the U.S. When Miro made the move, he asked Walker to take the plunge and relocate to Guatemala to assume the position through the country’s Olympic committee.

 

The decision was an easy one, Walker said.

 

“I spent five years at Bolles and it was a great opportunity to start a coaching career there with Sergio and another coach,” he said. “It seemed like the right time to leave; the right chance. I had always considered coaching in a different country – to get a perspective on how they run their swimming from a national level and with the federation. That opportunity presented itself so for me it was a pretty easy move. With no wife or kids, it was easy to pack up and move down there.”

 

 After Morles completed in February in Orlando – part of the Arena Pro Swim Series - Walker officially moved his residence.

 

Earlier this month, he returned to the states for his athlete’s participation in the Charlotte, NC stop in the same circuit. Gisela, who swims the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events – as well as other Guatemalan swimmers - fared well in the meet, Walker said. In mid- to late-June, he’ll once again be back in the U.S. for the Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara.

 

Life in Guatemala is good, but very different, Walker said.

 

“There’s a lot of traffic which I’m not used to – having grown up in West Virginia,” he said. “And there is a language barrier because I do not speak fluent Spanish. Other than that, it’s been a really great, fun adventure.”

 

Fortunately, Walker’s athlete speaks fluent English and he, who took Spanish at BHS, is furthering his knowledge of the language.

 

“I’m taking some private lessons, but with travel, that’s been hard over the past few months,” he said. “If we expand (the program), the language thing might be a little bit of a challenge, but not too much,” he said. “I think I know enough of the language to get my point across.”

 

When Walker assumed his position at Bolles, he was a part-time coach and eventually moved into full-time coaching. He worked with swimmers age 9-11 before moving into high school swimming. He and Miro also worked with the post-graduate group.

 

That developed into an opportunity to travel to London, ultimately leading to the relationship with Guatemala Aquatic Federation.

 

“That’s pretty much history and what led me to having this opportunity,” he said.

 

During his five years at Bolles, Walker was able to build teams and receive mentoring from a quality coach staff.

 

“I think the biggest thing I take away from that is everything I learned from Sergio and really that team atmosphere,” Walker said. “Teams we had there through the years were probably the best in their high school history. They broke several national records and individual relays.”

 

Putting swimmers in a position to succeed at the next level was always the ultimate goal, he said. And, really, that was Miro’s goal with Walker.

 

“When I swam for him and coached for him, it was very much the same in the sense that I was always constantly learning from him. I definitely owe a lot to him – not only in coaching, but also his outlook on life. I think he really helped me,” Walker said.

 

So now, Walker is essentially for the first time on his own.

 

“Now I’ll have the opportunity to call all the shots – and take all the blame,” he said.

 

Editor's Note: Following the three photos of Walker is Sergio Lopez Miro.