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TOOELE — With the conclusion of the state swim meet at BYU Saturday, Lone Peak took home the 5A boys title, and Sky View took the girls championship, while Emery won the 2A boys title and Grand won the 2A girls title Friday.
The conclusion of the meet also marks the end one of the greatest coaching careers in Utah history.
Tooele swim coach Mel Roberts is retiring after 48 years with the Tooele swim team, a career that yielded 549 wins, 38 region titles and 11 state championships.
It isn't the wins, championships or banners he will remember most. He'll remember the relationships.
"It's kind of funny because it's not so many victories or this victory or that," said Roberts, who has 200 wins more than any other active coach in Utah prep sports. "I've seen too many kids come through the program, and for most of them, high school is a tough job now.
"If we can provide a place where it is safe for them, a place for them to get good grades, then that's where I get the satisfaction."
Roberts had it rough a few times. Tooele didn't have a pool for several years, forcing the swim team to practice outdoors — even in the dead of winter.
When some of his swimmers got out of the pool, their feet would stick to the ice covering the cement, Roberts said.
"It's been trying at times," he said. "But it's rewarding when you finally see them accomplish something.
"Kids need direction. They need goals. They're going to be setting goals the rest of their lives — maybe they want to marry some gal or go to school — so they need to get into the process of what they want and what they have to do to get it — then work towards it."
After nearly half a century of coaching and teaching thousands of kids at Tooele High, Roberts would like them to remember him for one thing.
"I cared about them," he said. "I was interested in what they were doing and was here to help them if they needed it."
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