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Skip Gilkerson: The Hall of Fame Coach

“I’m the most interesting person I ever met”

That’s what Skip Gilkerson said he’ll name his autobiography.

Coach Skip, as most people call him now, is the head swimming coach and health teacher at San Marcos High School, but he is most famous for his career as a water skier.

“I was the best water skier there ever was,” Gilkerson said.

When he was six-years-old his family went on a vacation to Cypress Springs, Fla. and saw a water skiing show.

“We decided we’d try that. We went to town and we bought water skis. We bought a clothes line, got the handle off my mom’s broom, drilled two holes in it and that was our handle and rope,” he said.

They attached the rig to a 10 horse power motor on an aluminum fishing boat and hit the lake.

“I was six-years-old. It took me three times to get up,” he said. “We made a circle and came back over our waves. I lost my balance and I regained my balance, but I lost a ski, so I made another circle on one ski. I skied on one ski the first time I ever skied.”

He remembers trying to ski barefoot for the first time and ended up out-doing the state champion. He was 11 years old.

“One time we were out on the lake and the state barefoot champion was there and he tried to barefoot and he fell about four times because it was so rough,” said Gilkerson. “I said, ‘well let me try.’ My dad was kind of upset that I even thought about trying, so he said, ‘Okay, we’ll let mister smarty pants try.’”

Gilkerson succeeded and after a while, tossed the rope up to signal for the boat to come get him.

“He came back out and picked me up and I said, ‘Well, if you’re really a good barefooter, it wasn’t that rough.’ My dad got very upset at me,” he said.

Gilkerson grew up, went to college and continued to water ski for fun.

“It’s just one of those things that I just became very proficient at.”

After a year at Purdue University, Gilkerson was working as a life guard at Indiana Beach, the host beach of a water skiing show. Two professional skiers from Cypress Gardens were featured in the show, along with Gilkerson, who was the local talent.

“They asked me if I would be interested in skiing at Cypress Gardens,” he said. “Well this is like telling a Little Leaguer, ‘Would you like to play for the Yankees?’”

He convinced his father to let him delay school for a year to ski at Cypress Gardens, and Gilkerson quickly became a skiing super star.

“I barefooted my third day at work for King Hussein, so they must have thought I was pretty good,” he said.

He spent most of his life directing shows at Cypress Gardens, Tommy Bartlet’s water ski show in Wisconsin Dells, working for Master Craft boat company and spending his winters in Aspen, Colo. as a snow skier.

“I’m very very fortunate in that I’m in three halls of fame. I’m in the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame, I’m in the Smoky Mountain Snow Sports Hall of Fame and I’m in the Water Ski Hall of Fame,” Gilkerson said. “The best water skier in America gets the Skip Gilkerson award. It’s like the Heisman trophy. No one knows who John Heisman was, but everybody knows the Heisman Trophy, so when I’m dead and gone, everybody will know the name Skip Gilkerson.”

But the story doesn’t end there.

He retired from professional skiing and moved to Texas with his wife, Sharon.

“I got tired of running, biking and swimming every day and so someone suggested I start substitute teaching,” he said.

He took over a position at Miller Junior High and eventually made his way to the high school.

He decorates his classroom with photos from his career, like a snap shot of him and Arnold Schwarzenegger when they competed in the Mr. America competition together. Gilkerson won third place. And he likes to keep athletic fitness awards around as an example of good health.

“I’m 68, but it’s been four years since I lost a triathlon in my age division,” he said. “I try to teach by example. I still stand on my head in a corner and drink an ice tea, so the kids can see that it’s not gravity that takes liquids from your mouth to your stomach, so I kind of promised myself when I couldn’t do that anymore, I’d get out of teaching.”

His interesting life was almost cut short a few years ago when he noticed an irregular mole on his arm.

“When I went to see a dermatologist, he said, ‘I don’t like the looks of that,’” said Gilkerson.

His doctor called him at a water skiing tournament and told him that it was melanoma. The cancer was removed, leaving 81 stiches.

A year later he found another spot on his arm.

He went to see a doctor at the University of Tennessee, who biopsied the area and diagnosed melanoma again, but this time it was worse.

“He said, ‘It is melanoma, and it’s spread to your liver. Maybe I can get you in to Duke for a bone marrow transplant.’ And I said, ‘What happens if I don’t?’ And he said, ‘You have three months to live, tops,’” said Gilkerson. “No matter what will happen to me, I can’t have a worse day than that. If my wife left me, if my dogs got shot, they fired me and my house burned down, that would be a lousy day, but I’ve had a worse day than that. I’ve had a doctor look me in the eye and say, ‘You have three months to live.’”

He was prepped for chemotherapy and had a CAT scan, and then another doctor came in and rushed him into an office.

“He said, ‘I’m going to give you the best news you’ve ever had in your life,” Gilkerson said.

The melanoma had not spread as originally thought and the doctor told him he was free to go home.

Since then Gilkerson has had several minor surgeries for skin cancer and continues to participate in cancer research programs.

At 68, he counts himself lucky to be alive.

“You get old when you quit challenging yourself. My goal in life is to set the hundred yard dash record for 100 year olds. It’s 19.9 seconds. In order to do that, you have to live to be 100,” said Gilkerson. “I’ve been very very fortunate. It’s been a very good life for me, not that I’m ready to call it quits yet, but it’s been a very good life.”

Skip Gilkerson's story was originally published in the San Marcos Daily Record on August 26, 2009.