BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
Roxanne Balducci is among the Valley’s most decorated coaches, and is no stranger to individual accolades. The longtime McAllen Memorial Mustangs swimming and diving coach has received numerous awards for her efforts in the pool, including an induction into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
This season marked her 37th and final time at the helm of a swim team. To conclude her historic tenure, Balducci is receiving the Robert Vela Lifetime Achievement Award from RGVSports.com and the RGV Sports Hall of Fame.
Despite her accomplishments, she’d rather not talk about herself. Instead of basking in her many achievements, Balducci deflects credit to those who have helped her along the way.
“I feel very honored to have been chosen for the award,” Balducci said. “It’s very humbling and I’m glad that I was able to contribute to swimming in the Valley for the success of the sport. It’s really not one individual. It takes kids, it takes athletes, coaches. Everyone over the years has had to play a role to make the team successful. You win a team title, it’s a team title. It feels great. I feel great for the kids with everything they’ve accomplished and they’ve worked on.”
Balducci will receive her award June 9 at Yeckel Memorial Auditorium on the campus of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with free admission.
Balducci says the decision to step away from swimming has been in the works for a few years, but decided now is the proper time to leave. This summer, she’ll move to Port Orange, Florida to attend to personal matters, although she won’t entirely quit swimming.
“My sister and I got into open water swimming a few years ago,” she said. “We’ve done four competitions, but I guess now I’ll have more time to train. During the school year it was tough. It was difficult to find time for myself to prepare.”
Balducci first arrived in the Valley in 1978, traveling for a job and an escape. A Massachusetts native, she began coaching swimming at Edinburg High, far away from the harsh winters of home.
“I hated shoveling off the car,” Balducci said. “When you’re a kid, it’s fun. When you’re an adult, it’s not. You’re thinking, ‘I want to go somewhere warm where I don’t have to do this every day.”
Balducci says the popularity of swimming has grown in the Valley just as it has nationally during her coaching stay. She credits the success of Olympic swimmers like Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz for raising awareness of the sport. The growth of the sport locally has manifested itself physically as well. Cities like Weslaco, Harlingen and Brownsville have built natatoriums in recent years for their high schools teams and regional competitions.
“It’s great that more and more cities are building facilities,” Balducci said. “You want to grow the sport, you want the kids to excel, you have to have the facilities. You have to be able to train the same way as the kids up north and elsewhere around the country.”
Balducci bid farewell to her last group of swimmers at season’s end amid tears and heartache. But it’s the kids she says she’ll remember most as she moves on to the next chapter in her life.
“You always take your friendships with you,” she said. “The people that you’ve met and that you come close to. You remember all of the swimmers over the years at meets or at practices and all of the silly or fun things that happen. That never goes away.”