Swimming: Four set for induction to Lorain County Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame

The Lorain County Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame hosts its eighth annual enshrinement Saturday during a break between prelims and finals at the Avon Lake Swim Pentathlon at Oberlin College's Carr Natatorium. The swim meet start time is 11 a.m. Inductees for this year's class are: Don Cisar (Lorain High, 1976); John Limouze (Oberlin College, 2001); Julie (Weaver) Weidman (Avon Lake, 2001) and Julie (Reitenbach) Stromberg (Magnificat, 2004/Elyria resident). Don Cisar (Lorain High, class of 1976) Cisar has been a major contributor to high school and club swimming in a broad-based career. The 1976 Lorain High graduate has worn many hats, ranging from athlete, to coach, to tournament director. As a high school athlete, Cisar was unable to gain permission from Lorain City Schools to compete as an independent swimmer for Lorain High, which didn't field a varsity swim program. That hurdle was only a hiccup in his lengthy athletic career from 1967-80. Cisar competed in club swimming for Club Carousel (1967-73), Lorain YMCA (1970-74), Lakewood Recreation (1975) and the Elyria YMCA (1969, 1974-76). He was a five-time YMCA national qualifier in 1975 and a six-time national qualifier in 1976. Cisar was a three-year letterwinner at Cleveland State (1976-80), where he was a top-16 finalist all four years, helping CSU to four consecutive Penn-Ohio Conference championships. He was a club and high school coach, spanning parts of six decades, and remains active in the coaching ranks. Cisar coached Club Carousel (1978-81), Avon Oaks Country Club (1985-90), Westlake Recreation (1985-2000) and Vermilion Family Y Torpedoes (2008-15) club and recreation teams. He had three league championships for Club Carousel and one with Avon Oaks. He currently is head age-group coach for the West Volusia Swim Club in DeLand, Florida. In high coaching, Cisar guided the Westlake High boys (1986-2003) and Westlake High girls (1990-2003), where he won two Southwestern Conference titles with the boys (1996, 2000) and seven SWC titles with the girls (1990-93, 1995, 1999-2000). He was four-time SWC Coach of the Year in girls, and a three-time boys SWC Coach of the Year. Cisar also served as a varsity assistant for Amherst (2005-20), where he helped the Amherst boys win eight SWC titles (2011-13, 2016-20). "Swimming has meant a lot," said Cisar. "It's nice to be able to give back what the sport gave to me. I was able to go to places and see places that I never otherwise would have been able to have gone. To be able to help other kids through coaching, which is the important part, but also to be able to provide a fun meet forum and nice competitive attitude where they can perform their best when they need to." Cisar served the Northeast and Northwest districts in Ohio in a variety of administrative roles between 1986-2020: special needs assistant, Westlake City Schools (1986-98); aquatics director, City of Westlake (1998-2020); SWC meet manager (1999-2020);1987-2019: NCSL meet manager (1987-2019); Northeast OHSAA sectional meet manager (2004-20); NE OHSAA sectional diving coordinator (2000-20); NE OHSAA district diving manager (2000-20) and Northwest OHSAA district diving manager (2017). "Unlike basketball or football or any of those skill sports where everybody functions together, there's a spot for everybody on a swim team," said Cisar. "Nobody's going to be the best. Nobody is going to be the worst. One of the things I tried to do was to get as many kids as I could a chance to compete. Obviously, with the Southwestern Conference, the dual meets play a big role (50 percent) going towards that championship. I always tried to pair kids, but especially relays in the best, most positive way I could. That's what brought the most joy to me, because the kids usually swam a better time than they ever had done. "To see the happiness on their faces and that unity where everyone shares in the success, a team unity. Swim teams spend a lot of time together, just meets and bus rides, but also the practices. That's where all the bonding comes in. You create conversation through performance with everybody. It's kind of fun just listening to the chatter and hear the complement and pat each other's back." John Limouze (Oberlin College, 2001) Limouze played to his strengths and capitalized on that with back-to-back NCAA Division III national titles in the men's 200-yard butterfly in 2000-01. Limouze rallied from eighth place after the first 100 to win his first of two national titles at the 2000 NCAA Division III meet held March 16-18 at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He went 25.53 and 53.85 for his first two splits. He closed the gap, moving into third place with the third 50, as he split (1:21.55). It came down to a three-man race in the final before Limouze prevailed in 1:50.47 to win the title over Hartwick junior Jason Faucolner (1:50.58) and Kenyon junior Tom Rushton (1:50.92). "I enjoyed myself," Limouze told the Oberlin College Review (April 17, 2000). "I enjoyed having a crowd to perform for and I'm glad that I didn't let them down. It's a long way to Atlanta to see someone swim, but fortunately I swam well, and now I have something to cherish for the rest of my life." "When he qualified first the next day with 1:51.05, the second fastest time of his life, we were sure that he had a shot for the title that night," Oberlin coach Richard Michaels told the Oberlin College Review. Limouze used an identical strategy in his title defense at the 2001 NCAA Division III meet held March 15-17 at SUNY Buffalo. Limouze was eighth (25.57) through 50 and seventh through the first 100 (54.01). He moved up to third with a 1:21.77 split after the third 50, trailing Emory junior Sebastian Popa (1:21.29) and Kenyon sophomore Carlos Vega (1:21.65). Limouze put the hammer down the last 50 to win it with a time of 1:49.85, beating out Vega (1:50.40) and Popa (1:50.46), who faded to third. Limouze also earned All-American honors (top eight) as a freshman and sophomore. He was third in the 200 fly at the 1999 NCAA Division III meet at Macalaster College in Minnesota with a time of 1:50.75. Limouze took fifth as a freshman at the 1998 NCAA Division III meet at Principia College in Illinois with a time of 1:52.39. Julie (Weaver) Weidman (Avon Lake, 2001) The late 1990s was the start of a golden era of swimming for Avon Lake High. The program was just getting underway and no one knew how things would unfold. Julie Weaver was part of the rise. She earned a total of five All-Ohio (top 16) finishes while leading the Shoregals to a pair of Southwestern Conference titles in her four-year career. "It was so much fun," said Weidman. "I have an older sister, Sarah, she was one of the founding members of the high school team. Our high school coach, Gary Fahey, basically raised me and my siblings as swimmers from when we were very young. We just built that program up so quickly. It was an absolute blast. I enjoyed it so much and it was so cool to have success so quickly." The Shoregals won the 1997-98 SWC title in just their second year in the conference after, taking fourth in its inaugural season. Rocky River and Westlake were the dominant programs in that era. Avon Lake outdistanced defending champ Rocky River, 428-247.5, to win the 1998 SWC meet. "I felt like I was hanging out with my friends and enjoying what I liked to do. It was fun," said Weidman. "Gary was a great coach. I owe a lot of my success in swimming to him. He loved the sport and he was so focused on developing us from a young age and staying focused on technique and form and building the basics of swimming and using total immersion which was kind of new at the time to develop us as swimmers. He was successful at because we had a great team." After falling back to third in the SWC in 1999, Avon Lake finished second in the SWC in 2000 behind Westlake, 342-307. Avon Lake clawed back to the top in 2001 to share the title with Rocky River by defeating the Pirates, 355-317, in the championship meet after losing to River earlier in the dual meet, which counted 50 percent towards the overall title. The majority of swimmers trained under Fahey's USA Swimming club team, ALST (Avon Lake Swim Team), in the offseason. "We swam out of the Aquamarine, which no longer exists anymore," said Weidman. "It was an old resort hotel in Avon Lake that had both indoor and outdoor pools. I spent a lot of my youth and high school years training in those pools. USA Swimming really developed me as a swimmer. It's such a huge commitment. The competition is a lot more intense. "Most of the top swimmers on our team also did USA Swimming as well. We all swam together. I have lifelong friends. It developed me, not only athletically, but personally. I learned so much from having that commitment to that sport, because it's such a huge time commitment, physical commitment, emotional commitment, all of that, and social commitment as well. The offseason training is where most of my high school success came from." Weaver was two-time Division II All-Ohio in the 100 back, taking ninth in 2001 (59.98) and 14th in 2000 (1:00.97). She was also a member of both the state-qualifying 200 free and 400 free relays. The 200 free relay was 14th at state in 2001 and 16th in 2000. The 400 free relay was 16th at state in 2001 and 20th in 2000. Weaver was a four-time SWC champion and was first-team All-SWC 10 times. Julie (Reitenbach) Stromberg (Magnificat, 2004/Elyria resident) Julie (Reitenbach) Stromberg was a five-time Division I All-Ohio and three-time NISCA (National Interscholastic Swim Coaches) All-American for Magnificat High School. She helped lead the Blue Streaks to four sectional titles, one district title, three district runner-up finishes and four top-10 state meet finishes between 2001-04. The groundwork for Stromberg's high school career and college career for Xavier University came through years of training with the Elyria (1995-2002) and Lorain (2002-03) YMCA programs. She was a YMCA Zone Team member (1998-2003) and YMCA National Team member (2000-03). Dave Wessely and Colleen Everhart were Stromberg's coaches at the Elyria Y. Dave Richards was her coach at the Lorain Y. "My best memories are from those zones and national meet trips for the Elyria and Lorain YMCAs," said Stromberg. "And the friendships to this day with people that I'm still connected with and the girls that I swam with. The Y in Lorain County was the start. I've got a great amount of gratitude to Elyria and Lorain Y programs that I swam for." Reitenbach was a member of five top-16 (All-Ohio) Division I state relay finishes for Magnificat, including three top-8 or podium finishes. She was a member of the 200 medley relay that was sixth in 2002, the 200 free relay that was fifth in 2003 and the 200 free relay that was sixth in 2004. "To be a state qualifier all four years stands out as a great accomplishment. It's very tough to do," said Stromberg. "We had a district championship my sophomore year (2002), three district runners-up and four top-10 finishes at the state meet. That's a testament to the coaches (head coach, Jonathan Hurst) that I swam for and my teammates. The atmosphere at Canton with state sticks with you the rest of your life. It's truly electric. As a kid it's just so exciting. "I loved (swimming) from the minute I started all the way through college. Even to this day, I still swim 3-4 times a week. It feels good. Life is precious and you have to do what makes you feel good and energizes you. I've always found that in the water." Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.