For as long as anyone can remember, Tom Kane and Ed Walsh have been fixtures of the Central Bucks East swimming program.
You can still find them on the deck but Kane, the former girls head coach, and Walsh, who headed up the boys program, have retired from the top coaching spots. These days, Walsh is an assistant to head coach Kris Moyer and Kane can be found behind the mic in his new role of announcing the meets.
“Sooner or later, you’ve got to do it,” Kane said. “You’ve got to give it up.
“I’m enjoying being the announcer. I still get to be at the meets and see the kids swim and be with everyone.”
Both Kane and Walsh took coaching sabbaticals in 2021, due to COVID.
“We wanted to protect ourselves and our families,” Kane said. “For me, it was a little difficult coming back. I had momentum and then everything breaks and it was hard.”
Kane has also had some health issues.
“I had bronchitis twice last year and I couldn’t hack it through states,” he said. “I only went up for one day. Fortunately, Kris Moyer (assistant coach, now the head coach of both programs) took charge of it, so that was the handwriting on the wall for me.
“I was also diagnosed with prostate cancer at the beginning of the season, so I had to have radiation. It went well, but it made me tired.”
He also had hip replacement.
“I’m 72 and Ed is 77 and he said, ‘What are we doing?’ and that’s when I said, ‘I think we’re hanging it up’ and we did,” Kane said.
Kane taught English from 1974-2006 at CB East.
“Coaching was easier once I retired from teaching,” he said. “I had a full load plus I was the department chair and we were having two practices a day and I was raising three kids.”
He has won multiple conference championships through the years, winning 12 consecutive Suburban One League titles from 1993-2004 and coached many swimmers to the state meet. Highlights include winning the District One team title in 1986 and coaching 1986 state champion Sue Leatham.
“Getting out to states and seeing the fruit of all the hard work was so rewarding,” he said. “There are so many memories. It’s been a great run.”
He and Walsh had a great working relationship.
“We just had a great rapport,” Kane said. “We’d finish each afternoon and go out to our cars and he’d say, ‘You get the coffee and I’ll open up’ for morning practice. He must have said that to me every day for however many years we coached together.”
Walsh, who taught physical education at several schools in the district, is enjoying his new role serving as an assistant to Moyer, who had been his assistant coach.
“There were a lot of highlights,” Walsh said. “Kevin McCann was one. The 2010 medley and 200 free relay and those boys on it. I enjoyed it.
“I turned 77 in June and TK (Kane) and I always said we’d go out together. He said he was going to do the announcing so I figured I’d be an assistant coach.
“It’s been great. Kris is doing a great job and I still have a hand in it. I don’t have to do six days a week or do lineups anymore, which is nice.”
Walsh led the Patriots to conference titles in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000 and 2001. He also coached state champion Kevin McCann in 1998.
Both men were inducted into the Central Bucks East Hall of Fame on Oct. 15.
“That’s the final note for us,” said Kane, who also serves as the Hall of Fame’s president. “And we did it together.”
Veteran Central Bucks West swim coach Vikye Swanson worked beside both for decades.
“I met Ed in 1991 when I came back to the district,” Swanson said. “We worked at Tamanend (Middle School) together and we’d talk about swimming. I met Tom not long after that, and Tom’s daughter Sarah swam with me at West.
“They have been like my brothers for years. I’m not sure I can imagine it without them, but I knew it was coming. They have impacted so many kids at so many levels as coaches and mentors. Everyone looks up to them and respects them.”
Swanson’s team shared the CB East pool from 1995 until CB South opened in the fall of 2004.
“Those were great times,” she said. “The kids were really tight and that’s a big part of the culture we breed, where the kids from all three schools support each other and want each other to succeed. That’s the way we all coached. We worked together, and Tom and Ed were the leaders of that.
“I feel so honored to have worked with them for so long, and I’ve learned a lot from them.”
CB East athletic director Ryan Kelly had nothing but good things to say about the pair.
“They gave so much to the CB East swimming community over four decades of service,” he said. “They’re two great individuals who were also amazing coaches.”
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