As a gifted and deeply intellectual English teacher, Jon Carlson knows well the power of words. While his resume as a two-time state championship winning swim coach is a distinguished testament to a powerful coaching career, it’s the words of those he coached and worked with that truly capture the essence of Carlson’s legacy.2006 Naperville Central graduate Sarah Pucci shared, “I have so many positive memories about our training, team culture and, of course, our phenomenal outcomes in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. I am so grateful for the experiences that I had as one of Jon’s swimmers. I think about him and his coaching strategies and philosophies a lot now that I am a high school swim team coach. For years, Jon demonstrated the ability to train a group of individuals with some potential and turn them into a competitive team at the State level. I knew this then, but I realize even more now, almost 10 years later, that much of my experience is thanks to the endless number of hours that Jon spent coaching us throughout our seasons – putting time in to improving our program each year, always focusing on technique and bringing in new equipment and new technology. I really do think that my experience as a student athlete at Central would have been very different without Jon as my coach.”Echoing Pucci’s appreciation of the unique marriage of Carlson’s vast swimming knowledge and intuitive approach to team dynamics, Marty Bee, retired Naperville Central athletic director noted that while Carlson was “a coach who had an outstanding knowledge of the science of developing swimmers,” he was also “terrific in his low key manner in building team unity as well as leading a program that provided for the positive growth of each athlete as a person.”Through his tenure as head girls swimming coach from 1982-2008,Carlson cultivated a program that earned more than 20 top ten State finishes in 27 years, including six state champion relay teams, a state runner-up team trophy in 1994, a third place finish in 1993 and two state titles in 2004 and 2005, which featured four state records, including Kelly McNichols’ still-standing 200 free record.For all of the awards and highlights, Carlson found most joy in the day to day interactions with his athletes. After retiring from teaching in 2006, Carlson remained poolside for two more seasons.McNichols championed her high school coach in an interview featured in a 2009 Daily Herald article, saying, "Jon was really like a second father to me […] I don't think there's anyone in the world that can replace Jon Carlson. He's absolutely one of the most amazing people I've ever met in my life." As he made his exit quietly from the Redhawk community, he was, as writer Dave Oberhelman stated, a man “less interested in career-boosting stats and facts than simply enjoying the camaraderie.”His uncommon humility and quiet grace, coupled with a fierce competitive drive and genuine investment in the study and science of swimming, helped Carlson find success as an athlete, as well as a coach. The 1964 graduate of Wheaton Community High School had a distinguished swim career at Carleton College in Minnesota, where he earned the Warnecke Swimming Award in 1968, an award given each year to the senior swimmer who made the greatest contribution to his team. This spirit of service would later garner him All-State Coaching Hall of Fame recognition in 2012 from the Illinois Swimming Association.A man of letters who is also a man of few words, Carlson, upon retirement, simply shared, “A lot of people probably coach their whole life without getting a trophy, so I feel very fortunate that I had such great kids to work with.” It is very evident that those “kids” feel even more fortunate to have worked with Carlson, a coach whose true legacy lies beyond the record books and within the hearts and memories of those whose lives he touched, both in and out of the water.