Today, Notre Dame swimming coach Tim Welsh will observe the anniversary of the defining tragedy of his life. And on Saturday, the wound will be reopened.
Eleven years ago, while Welsh was coaching the Fighting Irish women’s swimmers, the team was returning home after losing a meet to Northwestern when it was in an accident. Just a few miles from the Notre Dame campus — traveling on the Indiana Toll Road during a blinding snow storm — the team bus veered off the road, hit the median and flew into a ditch.
Two swimmers — both 19-year-old freshmen — died when they were thrown from the bus and trapped under it.
“To me, it’s a day that defines life,” Welsh said. “To me, everything either happened before or after the accident.”
That weekend Notre Dame canceled all athletic contests for the first time since President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. More than 1,400 students and faculty attended a memorial service for the two swimmers.
“It was certainly one of the worst days of my life,” Welsh said.
Of the 37 people on board, only Welsh and one swimmer escaped injury.
But Welsh has not been able to forget the crash. Welsh — who moved to coach the school’s men’s team before the 1994-95 season — has made sure that his teams have not faced NU since.
“The next couple of years, Tim (said he) didn’t feel like coming,” NU coach Bob Groseth said. “So we backed off.”
This year, for the first time since the tragedy, Welsh’s squad will face the Wildcats. While he thinks he’s finally ready to meet NU, he’s glad that he won’t have to travel to Evanston for the meet. That would be too painful.
“It’s not a weekend I’d want to ride the Toll Road in the snow,” he said. “I must say, I really appreciate (NU) coming here.”
Groseth recalled hearing about the tragedy on his radio the morning after it occurred. This year, he informed his team of the situation and asked his swimmers to be respectful.
“I just wanted them to be aware of it,” he said. “Most of them didn’t know about it. They responded well.”
Welsh expects to quietly observe the memory of the crash, but he made sure that his swimmers understand the gravity of their Saturday meeting with NU.
“We’ll tell the story again this week,” he said. “Not for any sad purpose. We tell it because it’s part of our history, and it needs to be remembered.”
Margaret Beeler, from Granger, Ind., and Colleen Hipp, from St. Louis, both died in the crash. Several others were injured, including Haley Scott, an 18-year-old freshman in 1992, who shattered three of her vertebrae.
For nearly a week after the accident, Scott couldn’t move at all below her waist. Doctors told her she’d be paralyzed for life, but within a year she had proved them wrong — first by wiggling her toes and then by rejoining the team.
Scott, who now lives in Pennsylvania, has moved on with her life. She’s married to another Notre Dame graduate and now refers to herself as Haley Scott DeMaria. And after battling six surgeries, she’s competed in a marathon and a triathlon.
“This is a wonderful next chapter in her life,” Welsh said. “She looks wonderful.”
Scott recently gave Welsh another reason to have hope. Last year on Jan. 23 — one day before the accident’s 10th anniversary — Scott gave birth to a baby boy, James.
“To me, it was perfect,” Scott said. “It gives me something to look forward to at the end of January, which is not usually my best time of the year.”
Not many people in Pennsylvania are aware of Scott’s past, but she has not forgotten what happened. Like Welsh, she still frames some of her decisions around the tragedy.
“I think I recovered the way I did because I was meant to do something,” she said. “The thing I struggle with the most is making sure that I should be doing what I am doing.”
She’s still wrestling with her decision to become a stay-at-home mom. But she knows her old coach made the right decision to have his team swim against NU
Tomorrow, Welsh will try to start a new chapter in his life. He knows his team isn’t quite as strong as the Cats, but they’ll be trying hard to pull off an upset. But as they seek that win, they’ll remember their loss.
“Nothing ever compensates for the loss of the two girls,” Welsh said.
