Coaches lead Bulldogs sports teams to success

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The 2021 Judge Memorial Catholic High School swim team was coached by Sage Maararen (at right).

SALT LAKE CITY — Successful sports seasons are nothing new for Judge Memorial Catholic High School athletes, who this year claimed the state championship in boys swimming, and sent every varsity member of the boys tennis team to state as well.

Under head coach Sage Maararen, the Bulldog swim team has seen significant results. The girls team, which last year won their region, placed second at state this year. The boys, this year’s champions, took second last year, and “they seemed stunned. Honestly, they didn’t even realize that they were contenders, and it was gratifying to see a team that functions as a team get to celebrate such a success together,” Maararen said.

For Maararen, athletics was life-changing, she said.

“Through training I learned I could do hard things and do them well. The discipline, drive and confidence sports have given me was a game-changer, and I entered coaching in the hopes of helping others flourish and thrive as well,” she said.

One of the biggest challenges she has found as a coach has been that “sometimes you have to slow down in order to speed up. Paying attention to details takes time; investing in relationships takes time; anything worth achieving takes time. Patience is not my strongest virtue, so learning to enjoy the process and play the long game has been important for me as a coach,” she said.

The Judge swim team members consider themselves a family, “and encouraging each other’s growth and personal journeys has always been the most important team mission. Because that has been our focus for so long, our athletes didn’t seem to notice that they were becoming competitive on a larger scale,” Maararen said.

Learning to work hard toward a goal is important for success, she said.

“I’d say the biggest barriers individuals face are those they create themselves due to fear of failure. A hard thing to learn is that in life you will fail more often than you succeed, and it’s important to recognize that those perceived failures are actually just stepping stones on the journey to success. If you don’t fail, then you’ll never succeed,” she said.

The school has a student body of more than 500, of whom 36 percent are members of an ethnicity minority.

“Judge swimming prides itself on inclusivity and works to provide a positive home for all levels while developing athletes strong of body, mind and heart,” Maararen said.

The JMCHS Boys Tennis team, which qualified every varsity player for the 2021 state championship, is coached by Tracey Valentine and Christie Brightwell.

“I don’t know how, but they got every single varsity tennis player to state,” said Scott Platz, the school’s athletic director. “While Tracey has the title of ‘head coach,’ Christie and Tracey do it together, and I’d have it no other way.”

The women’s coaching career with boys tennis at Judge started in 2019 after the previous coach was unable to continue due to increasing work responsibilities.

“We had been coaching the girl’s team for four seasons and really enjoyed it, so we decided to work with the boys, too,” Valentine said.

The biggest challenge as a coach “is helping players when we see them struggling with academic or personal issues,” she said. “They are kids first and tennis players second. We try to create a family culture on our teams and want to support them in any way possible.”

Brightwell echoes Valentine’s words.

“It’s a different coaching for boys and girls, but you couldn’t find a better school to work for than Judge that takes care of their students as a whole,” she said.

“We do not consider our genders to have any relevance to our team’s success,” Valentine said, adding that the secret to working with people of different backgrounds “is to be competent in what you are doing, treat everyone with respect and like they are the most important person in the world. Everyone has a valuable contribution to make.”

Valentine said the tennis team is inexperienced, so having all the varsity members qualify for state was an accomplishment.

“When the final doubles match for our team ended, one of my singles players turned to me on the bleacher and said, ‘Coach, we did it.’  Not ‘I did it,’ or anything about his personal achievement,” Valentine recalled. “We achieved our goal. It was all about team. We couldn’t be prouder of these young men supporting each other.”

“Tracey and Christie do an amazing job with all of our tennis teams,” Platz said. “From developmental to varsity, girls to boys, they do it the right way and always have.”