Hamilton resident Bobby DeSandre has always loved swimming.

The former Notre Dame and Rider standout first stepped into the pool at age 5, and he has barely been out since. After swimming competitively for much of his life, he now helps athletes in the same position as the head coach at Penn Aquatics in Fairless Hills, Pa. He credits the coaches who taught him at various levels of his swimming career with inspiring him to continue on with the sport even after he graduated college.

As head coach, DeSandre does everything from maintaining each individual swim group to managing the coaching staff.

The youth competitive swim program offers training for swimmers of all levels, from beginners to the recently-added masters. Locally, the Penn Aquatics swimmers compete in the Suburban Aquatic League’s East Division. Nationally, they are a part of USA Swimming.

Along with coaching, DeSandre works full-time at his family’s business, DeSandre Brothers. The business is locally based but has a subsidiary in Florida, and specializes in the production, wholesaling and retailing of horse-related products to farms and Thoroughbred racetracks.

While he spends much of his time with the business, DeSandre always looks forward to his time at the pool.

“I have a full-time job, but I consider myself a full-time coach,” he said.

Swimming has always been DeSandre’s passion, and the area started to take notice once he reached Notre Dame, where he graduated in 2001. He was coached by his father, Henry DeSandre. He also swam competitively for Hamilton Aquatics Club under Jeff Lowe.

DeSandre reached several milestones while swimming for both the Irish and the club. During his senior year, he earned Top 16 honors in the 200-meter butterfly and the 400-meter individual medley at the 2001 YMCA Spring Nationals, an accomplishment DeSandre considers his most notable.

That’s impressive considering he also set Notre Dame school records in seven individual events and two relay events, set one county record and was voted MVP his senior year.

DeSandre stayed local after high school and continued his education at Rider University, where he also swam for the Broncs. He set 11 university, pool and Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference records at Rider, and belonged to the squads that won the MAAC championship in 2004 and the ECAC championship in 2005. He graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

While at Rider, DeSandre met Dean Hutchinson, assistant coach at the school. Hutchinson is the former head coach at Penn Aquatics, and DeSandre’s connection with Hutchinson led the Hamilton native there.

DeSandre said he started out as an assistant coach but took over the head position after Hutchinson could no longer continue the job.

“It was Dean’s approach to coaching that ultimately guided me to want to coach,” DeSandre said.

Now the Penn Aquatics program is DeSandre’s, and the young coach has begun plotting lofty goals for his athletes. With a record-setting swimmer for a coach, perhaps those goals are more realistic than ever.

For more information about Penn Aquatics, go online to pennaquatics.com.