Swim Coach In Friendly Waters

Simonne MacDonald was so captivated with Tom Fraenkel’s wisdom that she followed him 10,000 miles.

She left family, friends and familiar life in South Africa, just as he had, rather than face a swim coach with questionable skill.

“Coach Tom did so much for me,” she says, squeezing pool water out of her dark hair. “He helped my strokes. He has so much knowledge.”

South Africa named Fraenkel its swim coach of the year in 1983 for the same reason Simonne, 18, followed him across the world to Post Falls. He knows swimming better than most.

Tom taught Simonne to swim in Capetown. She stuck with him after he moved to Tennessee last year, then followed him north to Idaho this year.

Now he coaches the Coeur d’Alene Area Swim Team.

“He’s brought new life to every- one,” says Debbie Dahlke, gratefully. Her son, Ian, has swum with the team for six unsettled years. “There’s a difference in motivation, attitude. Workouts are a lot tougher.”

And Tom is just beginning.

“My aim is to build this club into a huge force in the region,” he says, smiling but crossing his arms with determination. “I’m shocked. I’ve never seen so much talent in a small area.”

Tom was as ready to leave South Africa as Coeur d’Alene parents were desperate for a coach. He was out of money, bitter at the business world and pining to coach without distractions.

“I realized there was no future there,” he says. “I’m ambitious.”

Tom had lived in Africa since his birth in mountainous Hlatikulu in Swaziland 50 years ago. His white skin made him untouchable during the colonial times of his childhood.

Racial separation was pronounced, but both Tom’s grandfathers had strong ties to black royalty. One was the personal attorney for a Botswanan leader. The other grew up with the king of Swaziland, Sobhuza.

Tom’s trouble-free childhood ended in an abusive boarding school. One embittered white student held Tom’s head under water in a pool until Tom nearly lost consciousness. He was never able to submerge his face again.

That experience didn’t stop him from swimming in high school in Mafeteng. He backstroked.

The elements of the various strokes fascinated Tom. His mind broke movements apart to better understand how they worked. Agriculture was his father’s field, but Tom decided to coach.

“I relied on pure logic and deceit,” he says, chuckling. “I pretended I knew everything.”

The world had begun to shun South Africa by the 1970s for its apartheid policies. Tom saw little to motivate kids, so he sank his energy into developing a top-notch swim system.

He studied strokes and observed other coaches. He noted where they were wrong and learned what to avoid. He analyzed what worked in each movement.

Then he took his skills to Klerksdorp, near Johannesburg. For four years, he coached 150 swimmers in a town the size of Coeur d’Alene. He taught stroke technique until it was second nature to his kids.

Tom struggled for excellence, but it was tough to inspire his swimmers. They weren’t invited to meets in other countries because of South Africa’s objectionable racial policies.

By 1976, Tom wanted a bigger setting. He settled in Capetown and coached for the oldest club in the country. Its adherence to outdated traditions frustrated his progressive nature.

He sneaked to an American Swim Coaches Association clinic to study and make contacts beyond South Africa. One of those American contacts, Doug Ingraham, convinced a coaching clinic in Colorado to accept Tom in 1983 despite his country’s policies.

Annette Cowley, one of Tom’s swimmers, was world ranked that year in two freestyle events. South Africa anointed Tom coach of the year. He was grateful for the American clinic experience, but critical of the American approach.

“Americans have huge theoretical knowledge, but they don’t apply it well,” he says. “There’s too much obsession with getting too many kids in the pool. It’s difficult to see errors and work with individuals.”

The Capetown scene changed enough that year to drive Tom to invest in private swim clubs. They were new to the country. As the political scene changed, the poorest residents took over community pools and demanded free instruction.

Private clubs offered paychecks and a future. Tom set up swim schools for one company. The business sold after three years. Tom lost money, but kept his job.

Tom responded by creating his own learn-to-swim program for children. He called it Frankie the Frog. By 1993, South Africa had 65 Frankie the Frog franchises and taught the method in 12 schools.

But the country’s new attitude had little room for swimming. New freedoms brought new priorities. People resorted to desperate moves to keep balance or restore it to their lives.

Club management told Tom to leave in 1993. He’d invested everything he owned in his swim programs and had no money left to fight. He lost everything - insurance, cars, retirement annuities, house - in the resulting fiasco.

He had no money to send his three children to college. The club finally went bankrupt. Tom was bitter enough to leave his country.

His friend Ingraham was on the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1998 when Tom asked for help into the United States. Doug found him a coaching job in Kingsport, Tenn. A lawyer helped Tom qualify for a special ability visa.

The mountain town’s cold welcome nearly sent Tom back to South Africa.

“It was the unhappiest year of my life,” he says, bouncing his right heel off the floor in frustration. “Baptism by fire. We were ostracized. People were very closed-minded.”

His wife, Anthea, convinced him life would get better. Doug helped him find a new job. Tom applied for 30 coaching positions throughout the nation. He accepted Coeur d’Alene after one visit. It reminded him of his childhood home.

“These are good people here,” he says. He finds attitudes toward race and religion more open and easier to accept in North Idaho than Kingsport. “The people are more cosmopolitan. I’m very happy here.”

He began Frankie the Frog lessons at Coeur d’Alene’s Shiloh Inn and Swim Northwest Aquatic Center, formerly the Post Falls Community Pool. He taught his assistants to coach. He analyzed the strokes of swim team kids and taught them the right way.

“He’s a neat, wonderful guy,” says Katie Blank. She’s stuck by the Coeur d’Alene Area Swim Team for a dozen years. Her youngest two children swim now and she’s a master’s swimmer. “The kids are swimming beautifully.”

Tom has impressed the young swimmers, despite his tough workouts that leave them red-faced, panting and draining their water bottles.

“He’s really the best coach I’ve ever had,” says Jordan Trader, 16. “He really cares about us, not just for swimming but who we are.”

Tom says he’s found home. He plans to market a video of his teaching technique internationally. He’s starting a swim teacher’s academy in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

“I love to do my own thing,” he says. “I’m happy here. I’ve found my destiny.”