Former Parkway West coach Sodemann goes into state swimming hall of fame

Former Parkway West girls’ swimming coach Linda Sodemann will be inducted into the Missouri Interscholarstic Swim Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

The  honor will come today at the 37th annual Missouri state girls swimming and diving championships at the Rec-Plex in St. Peters.

“It’s wonderful and very thoughtful of them to induct me in,” said Sodemann. “I’ve been out of coaching quite a while now.”

Indeed. But what a wave Sodemann rode while coaching the Longhorns. Parkway West won three state championships with Sodemann at the helm.

While working under the alias of Linda Schwartzman (her maiden name), she directed the Longhorns to a state title in 1981. She then married Bill Sodemann and continued her winning ways as Linda Sodemann by capturing the state title in 1982 and 1985.

Girls swimming was in the spring then. Now, it’s in the winter season.

“That was all a long time ago,” said Sodemann, who is currently a guidance counselor at Vianney High School.

She started in 1980 at Parkway West as a first-year teacher after graduating from Southeast Missouri State University. She was a physical education teacher.

Jane Kelly, the former Parkway West girls swimming coach retired. She left teaching and coaching.

“They asked me if I would coach the girls swim team,” Sodemann recalled. “I didn’t know much about swimming. I relied on Lane Page, the former boys swimming coach, who retired two years ago. “I didn’t know how to do anything. He taught me how to do it. He taught me to set up a practice. He had been at it quite a bit an d he knew what do to do so I asked him about everything.”

Sodemann stepped into a program on the move. The girls were swimming year round with the Parkway Swim Club, which was in its early stages then.

“It was a great program,” Sodemann said. “There were some talented girls who swam year round when it wasn’t common to swim do then. We had a good core group.”

As a first-year coach, Sodemann and the Longhorns won the state meet.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Sodemann said. “I had nothing to compare it to. It was most definitely thrilling to win state. I was a brand new teacher and a brand new coach.”

For an encore, the Longhorns won the next year, too.

“It was good, too, to win it again,” Sodemann said. “I didn’t feel like our team was as strong so for the kids to perform as well as they did it and win state, it was very exciting.”

The final championship came in 1985.

“We had more kids in 1985,” Sodemann said. “We had much better depth so earned more points by winning the middle places of the races.”

Then, Sodemann left coaching.

“I decided to step down,” Sodemann said.

Her husband was coaching girls track at the same time at Parkway Central and our son, Chip, was about 18 months old.

“With both of us coaching in the same season, we were coming and going and we were having to leave him,” Sodemann said. “I was uncomfortable for leaving him. I was working on my masters in counseling at UMSL. I  wanted a counseling job. You don’t coach when you’re a counselor.

“Me stepping down was more about our family needs. In December 1985, I became a counselor at West and enjoyed it very much.”

She retired in June 2010. Sodemann started the following January at Vianney.

“I like it very well,” Sodemann said about working at Vianney.”

Now, she can say she’s a Hall of Famer. Her husband, also retired, has one state championship in basketball when he coached at Parkway West.  He has been elected into the state boys Basketball Hall of Fame.

So now, each coach is in a hall of fame for the sport each one coached.

However, Linda still has two more state titles than her husband. That is conservation fodder from time to time.

“We talk about the state championships on occasion,” Sodemann said.

The three Sodemann sons are all doing well. Chip is a basketball coach at Washington High School. Middle son, Buddy, is a graduate basketball assistant at Illinois Wesleyan. Youngest son, Patrick, is sophomore at Truman State. He’s a redshirt this year and is sitting out with a shoulder injury.

But this is mom’s turn to to be in the spotlight.

“I was taken aback by this honor,” Sodemann said about the Hall of Fame. “The girls were fun and easy to work with. They were really competitive. They also were supportive of each other. It was a lot of fun.”