SCSU Remembers Tim Quill – Southern Connecticut State College Athletics

“I swam at SCSU from 2006 to 2010. When I arrived my freshman year, I was not the standout. I wasn’t the Lane 1 All-American. I was the swimmer who occasionally cracked the top 16. The swimmer who redshirted her first NE10 meet. The swimmer just trying to keep up.

But that never mattered to Tim.

He never treated me as anything less than essential. While he was training NCAA qualifiers, he was just as invested in the kid in the outside lane chasing personal bests. My first year was full of highs and lows; feeling part of something extraordinary, yet quietly wrestling with imposter syndrome. My closest friends were chasing NCAA cuts. I was chasing seconds off my own time.

And still, from the very first practice to the last day of spring training, Tim saw me.

He saw the drive. The grit. The love for the sport that dragged me out of bed at 5 a.m. day after day. He pushed me harder than I had ever been pushed in my life. That year I worked harder than I ever had before at anything. And the results were everything you’d hope they would be.

But I almost walked away.

Sophomore year loomed, and I was tired. The early mornings. The 20 hour a week commitment that felt like a full-time job. I told myself I’d make it through spring training and then decide what I was going to do.

At the end of season awards ceremony, Tim stood in front of us to present the Coach’s Award. He described an athlete who came from a small high school program. Someone who trusted SCSU to launch them forward. Someone who might show up in the back of the pack, but who had the heart of a top-eight swimmer.

And then he said my name.

I remember sitting there, stunned. Mouth open. Hearing him describe a version of me I had never fully seen myself. In that moment, I realized something profound: Tim believed in me in a way that changed how I believed in myself.

I knew then, I wasn’t done.

During my 4 years I swam my heart out for TQ and the team. I swam personal bests, I swam as a rostered athlete, and I swam through mono where heard him shout, for the one and only time in my life, “SLOW DOWN, TRUAX.”

By 2010 I broke through a five-year plateau in the 200 free. And in the final race of my career, the 1650 free, I made the top 8 for the first time ever.

The look on Tim’s face that day was the same look he gave our All-Americans.

Because to him, that was my All-American moment.

Tim was the rare kind of coach who understood that 16th place and 1st place both matter. That swimming, despite what people say about it being an “individual” sport, is anything but. Especially at SCSU. In his program, every lane mattered. Every swimmer mattered. Every role mattered.

He built something bigger than medals and podiums. He built belief. He built belonging.

And for so many of us, he built the version of ourselves we didn’t yet know we could become.

Thank you, Tim. For seeing me. For pushing me. For never giving up on me.” – Alex Hagist (Truax)