A Call to Coaching

Photo provided by Mike Koleber

Former Oakland University swimmer Mike Koleber, SBA ’87, found his talent for competitive swimming at a young age. At OU, he transformed this talent into 11 NCAA All-American titles, team captain and senior national qualifier. However, after college, Koleber did not go near a pool for almost a decade, until his calling caught up with him again.

As the son of a swim coach, Koleber dove into the sport early, learning to swim at the age of three and participating in local leagues before his family’s relocation landed the 8th-grader in the pool at Oakland University. There, he began swimming for the OU Live Y-ers Swim Club under coach Pete Hovland, who later became Koleber’s college coach from 1984-87. The lessons he experienced from Hovland deeply influenced Koleber.

“There was a quality standard; you didn’t do less than your best,” Koleber says of Hovland’s teaching philosophy. “He just had a way of bringing that out in people without losing his temper. From a cool and collected standpoint, Pete led through actions.”

Although Koleber’s swim career at OU was marked by incredible feats, his last meet did not go as planned. After months of practice and preparation, his performance left him feeling defeated. “It was the worst meet of my life,” says Koleber of the 1987 competition in Long Beach, California. “I had zero energy.”

For the next decade, Koleber did not go near a pool. Instead, he found himself working under fluorescent lights in a cubicle in Atlanta, pondering his corporate career choice. “I wasn’t feeling like I was making an impact there,” he says.

Koleber’s competitive mindset wouldn’t allow for a compromise, and he formulated a plan while driving home one day: if he could do anything in the world, he’d go back to the pool and make a difference through coaching.

“I knew I had a calling to teach and coach,” Koleber says, noting that this gift was instilled by his father and developed by his coaches, especially Hovland. “The Pete Hovlands of the world had influenced me. What a difference someone like that can make.”

Photo by Robert Hall

After a job relocated him to Austin, Texas, Koleber began coaching in his spare time when he noticed a need for swim schools in the area. “I told my wife, Tracy, ‘We are going to build a swim center.’ And she said, ‘How?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know the how, I just know the why. We’re going to make this thing happen,’” Koleber explains.

Six years later, the Kolebers opened their first Nitro Swimming center in Cedar Park — a 30,000-square-foot facility with an Olympic-size pool. Due to popular demand, they opened a second facility in 2011, with a third underway. Today, Nitro Swimming has 120 employees and provides swim lessons for 3,000 children per week while being home to a premier competitive league for 1,800 kids in the area.

Koleber, who also served as board president of the American Swimming Coaches Association, says the athletic experience at OU influenced his life. “When you look at Oakland University's swim program graduates, there are a ton of us out here coaching,” he says. “Why? Because our coaches had such a positive influence on us.”