Hard work pays off when you’re under the right coaching, and Coach Ann Marie Dawes has a proven track record for helping her athletes reach their goals. She is recognized as one of the best Special Olympics coaches, with an impressive commitment to the organization over the past 20 years.

Ann Marie has been a coach at Seven Hills since 2003, where she currently coaches both swimming and bocce. In addition, she has been an assistant coach with the Milford Special Olympics swim team for the past 6 years and coached soccer for about 10 years. Ann Marie’s favorite sport, as you can imagine, is swimming. She began competing in swimming as young as 7 years old, and her favorite stroke has always been butterfly.

According to Ann Marie, Special Olympics is, “all about watching the athletes improve and grow in their sports as well as confidence in themselves.” Watching some of the swimmers on the Seven Hills team and the improvements that they have made while under her coaching is outstanding.

Ann Marie’s personal Special Olympics goal is to one day go to a Special Olympics World Games for swimming as a coach. Coach Ann Marie shared that she is doing everything she can to get there. Some of Coach Ann Marie’s Special Olympics highlights include traveling with SOMA to the National Games in Nebraska (2010), National Games in New Jersey (2014), National Games in Washington (2018) and on her own she flew to the National Games in Orlando to volunteer (2022.) Ann Marie was inducted into the Coaches Hall of Fame in 2015. She continues to coach, mentor, fundraise, and maintains all the training that is needed to be a coach as well as being an active swimmer.

According to Coach Dawes, one of the adversities and obstacles she faces is that  “each athlete is differently abled, and all have different personalities.”  As a coach, these differences sometimes require her to adjust her practices. This helps Coach Ann Marie to ensure that she is teaching the athletes the correct technique. However, in the case that the athlete needs to alter something based on their abilities, she can be sure they do not get injured with the modifications.

One more amazing thing about coach Ann Marie is that she helps fundraise for the Polar Plunge and she has participated in over a dozen plunges. This year she will be plunging for Seven Hills on March 22, 2025. Coach Ann Marie’s dedication to Special Olympics athletes is truly inspiring, and there’s no doubt she is destined to achieve her goal of coaching at the World Games one day soon!

Brook Twofeather is a member of the Special Olympics MA Content Squad. The mission of Special Olympics MA Athlete Leadership is to empower athletes to develop communication skills and utilize their voices to assume meaningful leadership roles. As members of the Content Squad, athlete leaders contribute to Special Olympics MA story-telling through interviews, photos, video creation, and more.