After 24 years as Head Swimming/Water Polo Coach at Saint Patrick High School, Marty Gibson ’82 has announced his retirement. Gibson, a two-sport student-athlete earning second team All-State honors for Water Polo his senior year at St. Pat’s, led the 1997 water polo team to a State Championship and was named Illinois Coach of the Year the same year.
Gibson has been involved as a player, assistant coach and head coach of Saint Patrick swimming and water polo for over 30 years. He retires as head coach of the swimming and water polo teams, a post he held since 1997, making him the second longest tenured coach in the school’s history. He also served as assistant coach from 1984-1988 and participated in both sports as a student-athlete.
During high school, Marty was varsity captain for swimming and water polo his junior and senior years and a varsity starter for water polo for three years. In addition to earning second team All-State honors for Water Polo his senior year, he was part of the team to set the school relay record. That same year, he was named the senior Athletic Award Winner, an award his son Joseph ’16 also won, making them the only father/son duo to earn the distinction.
As a coach, Marty is a three-time Swimming Conference Coach of the Year and two-time Sectional Coach of the Year having led his team to Conference Championships in 2001 & 2002 and a Sectional Championship in 2002. Over the years, he’s coached four Top 15 State Meet Finishers, 43 Conference Champions, 23 Sectional Champions, 16 State Finalists and a State Champion (James Ridgeway ’07)
Marty is a two-time Water Polo Conference Coach of the Year, Sectional Coach of the Year. He led the 1997 Shamrock Hall of Fame Water Polo team to a State Championship. As a head coach, Marty has also led three teams that finished 2nd in the state and one 3rd Place finisher. He coached three Illinois Water Polo Players of the Year and 45 players who earned All-State. In 2006, Marty was recognized with the prestigious Phil Stelnicki Award, Illinois Water Polo’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
At the time of his induction into the Shamrock Hall of Fame in 2018 Gibson said, “To be able to coach and mentor the young men of Saint Patrick, a place that I love so much and that has been a part of my life since I was 15 years old, has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
Gibson attended Northeastern Illinois University and is a Sergeant with the Chicago Police Department. He and his wife Mary, who serves as the Attendance Officer at Saint Patrick, have two children: daughter Veronica, a graduate of UIC who earned her masters degree from Concordia and their son Joseph, a graduate of Seton Hall University who is currently pursuing his master’s degree at North Park University. Both earned swimming scholarships to compete at the college level.
Please join us in congratulating Coach Gibson on his retirement and thanking him for his many years of service to Saint Patrick High School!
