By Jack Begin

Cony swimming is synonymous with dominance.

The girls team won back-to-back team state championships in 2017 and 2018 and finished second in the 2019 state championships. While the boy’s team,has produced state record-breaking swimmers like Nathaniel Berry.

The decision by swim coach John Millet to step down last season would have thrown the program into question, until his friend and volunteer assistant Robert “Bob” Johnston stepped up to replace him.

Going by “Coach Bob,” he’s been a long time lover of the sport, He took his first swim lessons at Boy Scout camp, but he didn’t swim in high school as there was no pool or swim team in the town where he grew up..

“I took a swim class my first semester in college and was asked by the instructor (the newly hired college swim coach) to come to the first swim team practice. Within a few weeks I was faster than my teammates who had swum in high school,” Johnston said.

He soon joined the brand new swim team at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, experiencing the initial failures that came with it.

“I was on the first swim team they had. We lost all our meets the first season,” he recalled.

But through consistent defeats he and and the team grow stronger, “By the time I graduated we had a very successful team with a winning record.”

After graduating, Johnston kept in contact with the sport, and became an official for high school and college swim meets throughout Massachusetts. Johnston then moved to Maine in the mid-1970s to become the Cony Girls Swim coach for a season, before taking over as the head coach at Colby for the Men’s and Women’s swim programs for six years.

His day job, however, was on solid ground.

”All the time I coached swimming I was a full-time employee at the Maine Geological Survey in Augusta where I worked as a cartographer and geologist,” Johnston said.

When Johnston stepped down at Colby he took the Waterville High School Swim job, coaching for over 20 years, finally retiring in 2016. However, Coach Millet drew him back and he had helped as a part-time assistant for the past three years.

He never stopped officiating either, as he now works swim meets all over New England at college championship meets. He still swims competitively, too, and is on the Maine Masters Swim Club.

His life beyond the pool consists of many things. He is a park ranger in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway for six months out of the year, doing long canoe trips with his brother. He also enjoys carpentry; having built his own house.

Looking ahead to the swim season, Johnston was hopeful. The girls teams is one of the top in the state, and the boy’s team is in rebuild mode with the departure of a large graduating class last year, he said.

“I enjoy the personal improvement of swimmers as much as the team’s win-loss record so as long as swimmers go faster and enjoy that process, I am happy,”Johnston said.