Dixon native Aaron Helander to coach USA Down Syndrome Swimming team at world championships in Turkey

Dixon native Aaron Helander has accomplished a lot in his swimming career. In high school, he was a two-time team captain and a team MVP for the Byron co-op swimming and diving team. In college, he swam at the Division I level for Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Last year, he set six state records and won two events at the Canadian Nationals.

This March, he’ll add to his coaching resume.

Helander, a 2013 Dixon High School graduate and Rochester, Michigan, resident, is the head boys and girls swimming coach at Rochester High School and a head coach for Heart of the Hills Swim Club.

Last year, he accepted another head coaching job with the USA Down Syndrome Swimming national team.

Helander’s USADSS squad, which consists of about 25 swimmers, will compete at the 2024 World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships from March 19 to 26 in Antalya, Turkey. The competition will feature swimmers from a variety of countries, including Canada, Germany, Turkey, Mexico and Argentina.

“I was very honored to be selected for the position. Starting at Heart of the Hills as well as for high school, I had one swimmer, his name is Tim MacLean,” Helander said. “I got to know Tim for seven years and work with him and use some different strategies. His mom let me know that they were looking for a head coach. She nudged me into applying for the position, so I went through the interview process and then got selected to be the coach, and it was a very rewarding feeling to be selected for it.

“To be able to be named to a national team was very intimidating at first, but I felt very honored to be selected for that position and to get to have an impact on all the athletes across the whole U.S.”

In October, Helander traveled to Florida to coach a USADSS national selection camp. There, his team was whittled down from 50 swimmers to about 25.

The Dixon native has come a long way from where he started, getting his first real experience as a swimming coach at the age of 14 with the 8-and-under division of the Sterling Stingrays Swim Club. From there, he gave private lessons in high school and worked his way up to being a head coach at Rochester High School and Heart of the Hills. Now, he’s coaching a USA national team.

“I think that’s going to be a life-changing experience. It feels like a lot of pressure, but the pressure forces me to step up my game and be the best that I can, so I thrive under that,” Helander said about coaching at the world championships. “I think it will be a great experience to coach swimmers at such a high level and have that experience that they’ll carry with them and remember for their whole life as well. I really look forward to stepping up and being the best coach I can be and having as much of an impact as I can on the athletes.”

Above all, Helander wants his swimmers to enjoy themselves. If they can learn how to overcome obstacles in life through their participation in the sport, it’s all the better.

“One of my big things as a coach is I always try to incorporate fun into everything that we do. Whether I’m teaching five-year-olds how to swim or if I’m teaching 70-year-olds different techniques, I always try to incorporate a bit of fun into it,” Helander said. “My goal is to have people enjoy the sport, love the sport and continue on with it for their whole lives. That’s one of the great things about swimming is that you can do it for your whole life, and it’s good for the body, too. I focus a lot on doing technique and race-specific work, because I don’t necessarily believe in just doing a ton of yardage. I’m doing specific work to get better at technique and get better at racing as well, so I kind of tailor my coaching to each individual athlete, and I use swimming as my vehicle to teach life.”