Ames High School Head Swimming Coach Joe Fisher has announced his retirement from coaching after 13 seasons with the Iowa high school, beginning as an assistant coach in 2013 and later assuming the role of head coach after the passing of his close friend Dan Flannery in 2020.
On July 21, 2020, Flannery, the head coach of the Ames High School Swimming and Diving team, passed away after suffering a brain aneurysm, leaving the school without a head coach ahead of the 2020-2021 season.
Flannery and Fisher had been opponents in high school in the 1990s, and later became teammates at Iowa State under Head Coach Trip Hedrick. Flannery asked his former Cyclone teammate to join his coaching staff at Ames High School in 2013, a job that would kickstart an impactful career.
The Ames Athletic Director at the time, Judge Johnston, turned to Fisher, whose oldest daughter, Laura, had already spent a year in the Ames swimming program, to take over the head coaching duties after Flannery had won eight girls’ state championships and one boys’ title with the school.
According to the Ames Tribune, Fisher accepted the job under one condition: he would lead the program until his youngest of four children was done.
Today, all four of his children are done with swimming, and seven seasons of head coaching under his belt, Fisher will officially wrap up his time at the helm following the IHSAA boys state swimming championships in Iowa City on February 13th and 14th.
“The impact he has had on our girls and boys’ swim programs is immeasurable. Joe personifies the qualities of any excellent coach and has made our swim program better through his leadership,” said current Ames Athletic Director Lyle Fedders in a report from the Ames Tribune. “He will be greatly missed by myself and the Ames swim community.”
The impact that Fisher had on the program went beyond just the pool, but also touched the lives of his swimmers following Flannery’s passing.
Fisher coached 39 girls’ All-American swimmers as an assistant, and another 13 as a head coach, and since his time with the program, every school record has fallen. He also has totaled six individual state champions and collected one team championship since becoming head coach.
On the boy’s side, he coached two individual state champions and seven All-Americans.
In 2020, he was named the Iowa High School Swim Coach Association’s Coach of the Year, the season before he would be promoted to head coach.”I’m not going to say my kids loved me as their coach every day, but I tell ya, I sure loved coaching them every day,” Fisher said in an article from the Ames Tribune. “Hands down, those moments are the best.”
That’s quite the career.
And the new Ames high pool in the background looks amazing!