After Hours

“It’s not like baseball. You don’t make the call unless you’re certain of what you see.”

SWIMMING RULES After a couple of tedious days in the brutal summer heat waiting to see his daughter compete in a swim meet, Mark McCaw dived in to volunteer as an official. Eleven years later, he’s recruiting and training other officials statewide, running state and NCAA meets and trekking around the globe to referee world-class swimmers in open-water and pool competitions. He’s officiated at the Olympic Trials and he traveled to Guam earlier this year for the Junior Pan-Pacific Swimming Championships. McCaw, 51, senior vice president of McCaw Wealth Management Group in Bonita Springs, doesn’t do it for glory or money—it’s all volunteer. He likes working with young swimmers. “Good swimmers end up being good students,” he says. “It requires a great deal of focus. Who else is going to give up two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, and sometimes running and weight-training. That takes a huge amount of drive and focus.”