Support Coach Bill during Medical Emergency

Coach Bill Aden, beloved swim coach of the Montclair Swim Team for over 25 years has suddenly and unexpectedly become very ill. He is currently undergoing treatment in the ICU for a serious Group A Strep infection. He is responding well to treatment and is making slow steps to recovery. This GoFundMe has been set up to support him during this difficult time.

Update 6/11/24

Yesterday Coach Bill marked a mile stone in his recovery by returning to the pool deck to observe swim practice. Today he took over as coach. The swimmers are so happy to have Coach Bill back! Bill says that he feels better. Not 100%, but way better. Thank you for your support during his journey to recovery. Coach Bill’s return to the pool deck marks the end of this GoFundMe fundraiser. Thank you all for your generosity!

Hi everyone,

This is Bill himself, and these thanks come far too late. I'm sorry for that--it's my failing. I'm not very adept at things done online. The team email is still my highest achievement there. And I hardly knew what Gofundme was before I landed in the hospital and was told one had been started in my behalf.

The concern and the gesture from each one of you really touched me, and what it has amounted to overwhelms me. You all knew the team as a small one while you were here, but together we come to something big! That this very large gesture was made in support of me leaves me almost without words to thank you enough.

I'm fine now--100%. The infection I somehow contracted cut me down like nothing before in my life, but I had recovered enough to be coaching again a week and a half after leaving the hospital. I'm pretty convinced that this is what has returned me to full health so quickly--getting back to the pool and with the swimmers. I'm grateful for antibiotics, but it's 48 young kids that got me the last mile to feeling myself again. I think it is actually the way they make me forget myself, for hours each day, and enter completely into their efforts instead.