Gloria Liu, of the South Amboy YMCA swim team, competes in the girls 9-10 100 yard butterfly race during the Ryan Patterson Memorial Winter Classic Swim Meet. Ryan Marie Patterson was viewed by many as the heart and soul of the Metuchen- Edison YMCA swim team.
So it was only fitting that she be the namesake of the first-ever Winter Classic swim meet of teams from the Metuchen-Edison, Woodbridge and South Amboy YMCAs.
The all-day Ryan Patterson Memorial Winter Classic Swim Meet was held at the Woodbridge YMCA on Jan. 22, with 186 swimmers competing in different age groups.
Erin Coyne, aquatics director at the Woodbridge YMCA, said she met with the swim coaches in September and discussed the event.
“The decision to hold the meet was made that same week that Ryan had passed,” she said. “It was only fitting that we named the meet after her. ”
Ryan’s parents, Michael, who is head of the International Committee at the YMCA, and Marie, association executive director at the Metuchen Branch YMCA, and both residents of Metuchen, attended the event.
Megan Lovasz, of the Metuchen-Edison YMCA swim team, competes in the girls 8 and under 25-yard freestyle race during the first-ever Ryan Patterson Memorial Winter Classic Swim Meet, held at the Woodbridge YMCA on Jan. 22. Patterson had passed away in October. PHOTOS BY LAUREN CASSELBERRY Patterson was just 27 years old when she passed away on Oct. 9 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She was born in Edison but was a lifelong Metuchen resident. Six months prior to her passing, she had moved to New York to follow her calling in social work upon receiving her master’s degree from Fordham University. She worked at the Morris Heights Health Center in the Bronx.
Patterson was a graduate of Rutgers Preparatory School, Somerset, and Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y. She was a devoted swim coach for the Metuchen-Edison YMCA for six years, inspiring the next generation of swimmers to follow in her path.
Peter Coreschi, swim coach at the Metuchen Branch YMCA, was touched by the way Patterson lived and worked.
“She not only cared about her swimmers, but all swimmers,” he said. “She inspired me on how she handled her swimmers. I just wanted to be a fly on the wall when she gave her pointers to her swimmers, and since she had the background in social work, shewas the type who handled swimmers very well.”
Coreschi said he coached Patterson when she was young. When he returned to coaching after a few years off, he worked alongside her as a colleague. Coreschi said Patterson would have loved the fact that the winter meet was named in her honor. He said there is no better way to celebrate her life than through a swim meet.
“You couldn’t keep Ryan away from the pool,” he said. “Even if she was sick or could barely move, she would be there at the pool. She just had that drive, that competitiveness for the organization.”
“This is appropriate,” Coreschi said of the event. “She would have been happy.”
In 2009, Patterson, along with her parents and members of the Metuchen-Edison YMCA swim team, spent aweek atGrand Bahama Island to help paint the gymnasium of a YMCA building and helping with other community-service projects. A hurricane had destroyed the island’sYMCA. The Pattersons were instrumental in organizing the trip and working to get the Grand Bahama YMCAback on its feet.
The Winter Classic swim meet raised funds to benefit the Ryan Patterson Memorial Fund. The family asked that memorial donations be made to the Metuchen Branch YMCA, 65 High St., Metuchen, NJ 08840, with “In memory of Ryan Patterson” written in the memo section of the check.