Finding his lead role in a faraway land
By Bill Speitz From Missoulian
Andy Copley went to Los Angeles to be an actor.
That’s right, La-La Land. The City of Angels. A Missoula man intent on making it big.
Then a funny thing happened while he was there. Not funny ha-ha or even mildly amusing as it pertains to the smoggy land that is La La.
While Copley’s acting career sputtered, he made ends meet coaching kids’ swimming. In doing so he learned something about himself.
“I’m working in a little YMCA program and what I decided is that acting is a selfish profession and you’re just doing it for yourself,” said the 29-year-old, who spent a year touring with the Missoula Community Theater before graduating from UM in 2007. “Even though it was such a low-level coaching job, at the time I felt I was doing things for other people and it was so much more fulfilling.
He remained low-level for years, then opportunity came knocking in 2012. Turns out the man he was working for was the former national swim team coach for this tiny nation south of Cuba.
“The Cayman Swimming Association called upon this guy I worked for to see if he could help them out with coaching changes,” Copley said. “He sent me down here to help out temporarily and after three months or so I just kind of fell in love with it. I told them I wasn’t coming back and they hired me here.”
For a guy who mostly lived in David Cromwell’s shadow as a member of the Missoula Aquatic Club, things have turned out unbelievably well, swimming wise, for Andy. Or should we say Mr. Copley, head coach of the Cayman Islands national swim team and the Stingray Swim Club.
“It was a huge culture shock at first,” he confided. “It’s such a small place and you get island fever real fast. You drive 15 or 20 minutes and you’re on one end of the island. You drive another half an hour and you’re completely on the other end and there’s nowhere else to go
“But after six months it started to feel like I was living back in Missoula again. It’s that same small-town environment, very friendly.”
To put it nicely, the Stingray Swim Club Copley inherited was in need of help. So too was the Cayman Islands national swim program.
Back in the late 1990s the program was something inhabitants of the Cayman Islands could be proud of. One year it produced four legitimate Olympic swimmers.
After that it took a nosedive.
“For me personally, when I got here the Stingray Swim Club was at an all-time low,” Copley related. “I walked on deck and I felt like I was coaching the Bad News Bears.
“The first three months last summer I thought about walking and going back to L.A. every day after training. By the end of the three months things started to shape up. I finally felt comfortable with what was going on.”
With some priceless mentoring from Ian Armiger, who for many years was part of the UK Olympic staff, Copley has become a bona fide coaching presence in the Caymans. Last month he took a group of six swimmers to Bermuda for the Island Games – the equivalent of the Olympics for smaller island countries – and came away with six golds and eight silvers.
The team did so well it was featured on swimswam.com, which is one of the largest swimming publications worldwide.
And here’s the real kicker: Of all the people Copley has come in contact with in his life, all the coaches and role models who have impacted his attitude about swimming, it is his old high school theater whom he credits with making him the leader he is today.
“Her name is Margaret Johnson,” he says proudly. “She was a disciplinarian but she just loved what she did and loved all her students. I try to model myself after her.”
In the end we’re all actors, trying hard to fill roles without letting our flop sweat show in this great comedy/drama called life. Fortunately for Copley he’s working with a rock-solid script, forged 3,300 miles away and co-written by a theater teacher who really knows how to make a splash.
Courtesy photo:
Missoula product Andy Copley is now the swim coach for the Cayman Islands national swim team and the Stingray Swim Club.
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