Just keep swimming.
Just keep swimming.
It’s a mantra as sweet and simple as Dory’s ditty in the movie "Finding Nemo."
It’s how Joe Lileikis has approached the grenades tossed into his life. Follicular lymphoma requiring chemotherapy, followed by a fall from a tree that resulted in 16 broken bones, including 10 ribs.
What to do?
Stay positive.
Get back in the water.
Just keep swimming.
Lileikis, a four-time Western Athletic Conference champion for the University of Hawaii, was back on the deck of the Oahu Club’s pool five days after his June 10, 2012, fall, and back coaching … albeit from a chair. The Oahu Club’s Masters Swimming program director also got back in the water, his recovery fueled by a feeling that everyone jumped into the pool with him.
"My swimmers, the community and the water provided me with positive healing," said Lileikis, who also is an eighth-grade U.S. history teacher at Niu Valley Intermediate. "One quote that I have in my classroom is that time is our most valuable asset and possession. We all have time; however, we are uncertain about how much time we have.
"We must live each day with an attitude of gratitude, and use our time making choices and decisions to help others."
To that end, the 51-year-old adapts his coaching methods to keep up with technology. Both he and younger brother Tom — also a former UH swimmer and swim coach at the Oahu Club and Sunshine Aquatics — are using the iPad app "Coach’s Eye." It was an investment partially funded by father Chuck.
The program allows a coach to do on-the-spot video analysis, use drawing tools on the screen and add recorded messages to give instructional insight.
The beauty is in the quickness of the file sharing. After doing an analysis of a particular swimmer, the personalized instructional video is sent to the swimmer.
And it is very personalized. Joe Lileikis pulled up a previous file, redid the voice-over, beginning with "Good evening." He continued the analysis with "I see your stroke right here, it’s really long" then paused to draw an arrow on screen before restarting with "Focus on the front of your stroke, keep it stretched forward, swim into the bubble. Really nice. Keep up the good work."
"It is amazing and easy to send," Lileikis said. "There’s another app that does side-by-side split screens so you can compare. There’s more that I can learn and, now that I’m off from teaching in the summer, I can spend more time doing that."
His personal pool is full. He is married with two young daughters and oversees the Oahu Club’s masters program for adults 19-and-over of all abilities Monday through Friday.
The summer is full of distance swims and triathlons that require training. Lileikis is right there with his swimmers, preparing for two of the five North Shore Swim Series races: Saturday’s JACO Chun’s Reef to Waimea Bay, a 1.6-mile race, and the Aug. 9 Jamba Juice North Shore Challenge, 2.3 miles from Pipeline to Waimea Bay.
Series director Chris Gardner says he looks forward to the return of Lileikis, a former Waikiki Swim Club Male Swimmer of the Year.
"He’s such a humble guy that I didn’t know the extent of his injuries, he didn’t talk about it," Gardner said. "It’s so nice to see him back in top shape.
"When you go through something like he has — the cancer, the broken bones — a lot of people change spiritually. Joe didn’t have to. He was always this spiritual, positive person. I’m glad, not just to see him back swimming, but that he is creating a new crop of swimmers and triathletes, and through positive reinforcement."
That Lileikis has been able to recover quickly does not surprise brother Tom.
"It’s all a tribute to his physical and mental ability to stay positive," Tom Lileikis said. "He is what he believes in. He is the king of positive thinking. That played a huge part in his recovery from the cancer and the fall."
Many may remember the Lileikis brothers as core members of the "Bow-zows," an unofficial student group known for wild costumes and antics during UH volleyball matches in Klum Gym in the 1980s. That lighthearted approach to life has remained through the decades of coaching and mentoring.
So has the love of swimming for Joe Lileikis, a national-caliber swimmer since beginning his youth career in 1973 with Woodland Hills (Calif.) Swim Team. It’s what his generous spirt wants to share.
"I want to help you feel at ease and be efficient in the water," he said. "The goal is ease, efficiency and enjoy the journey. Always enjoy the journey."
