Coach Elmer Luke honored with bench dedication

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Madeline Gilbert

This is a plaque that both swimming teams fundraised to do in honor of him, girls swimming captain Madeline Gilbert explains his impact on her "He was a very important person to my diving, he encouraged me to do anything I set my mind to. He also was always cheering me on."

Elmer Luke was loved by the students he has coached over the years. He was very persistent with what he did, and showed up to swimming events almost every day.

Both the girls and the boys swimming team came together after the heartbreaking death of their former coach, Elmer Luke, on Dec. 3, to honor him with dedications. They all fund raised and ordered a bench and stone to honor Elmer at the Luke’s home, there was a plaque made to honor him at the pool, the boys team designed a pin that they wear on their warm up jackets.

Elmer Luke was loved by a lot of people, and this made it easier for the team to raise the money; also the Weisbrod’s were a big part in making all of this possible.

“The Weisbrod’s,  were the ones who made the pins possible. Also the whole team helped make these dedicati0ns, and the love for grandpa Luke. I think he did this himself because of the way he inspired everyone with his wisdom, and he was such a good person,” boys swimming senior captain, Sam Hudacheck, explained who made all of these dedications possible.

The team left Brian Luke in the dark, he was not aware of any of these dedication that happened. Afterwords, both of the teams got together for a picture. It was very touching for the coach.

Head swimming coach Brian Luke explained what happened the night he received the dedications, “I did not know anything about it until they did it. It was pretty cool when they announced it, and the girls came out of the stands wearing their warm up suits. It was really touching we took a picture after with both the boys and the girls swimming teams, and that was the first time in my coaching career that both teams were together.”

Raising the money was easy because of all the people he knew; they sent emails to all the current players and all of the swimming alumni.

Girls swim captain Marietta Johns explained, “We brought both the boys and girls team together to raise money for something to do in memory of him, we set up a donation website and we emailed parents and the alumni. There were so many people to contact but raising the money became easy because of all the people that he knew.”

The team wanted to do something for him since he was such a big part of their team.

Johns explained why they did these dedications for him, “We wanted to do something in memory of him because he was such a big part of our team, we decided to do a bench because we all knew that Brian Luke loves his back yard.”

All of these festivities helped motivate the team, helped make them better, and some meets they would even announce Elmer Luke to honor him.

Hudachek explained, “Think they were motivated at least the ones who knew Grandpa Luke the most because some of us knew Grandpa Luke for like 4, 5, 6 years, and some of the bigger meets announce him and it would motivate us.”

All of this helped bring their teams together, it showed how many people Elmer Luke has impacted.

Girls swimming captain Madeline Gilbert explained, “Everyone come together, it also showed how we all came together, so many people donated to this even past members.”