RMSC is celebrating the lifelong commitment of J. Riley Eaton to the swimming community. As an RMSC swim coach for 35 years, he coached thousands of young people, many of whom grew to love the sport as much as he did and have gone on to their own careers in coaching, including current RMSC coaches who swam under Riley. On a national level, he served for nearly 20 years as a founding member on the Board of Directors for the National Club Swimming Association. In the Potomac Valley LSC, Riley served as an HOD at-large delegate, senior chairman, and general chairman. In 2014, Riley was presented with a USA Swimming Life Membership for his years of dedicated and exemplary service to the LSC and most importantly the athletes. After retiring from coaching, Riley was the Holiday Invitational announcer for many years and could always be found with tootsie pops on his table. Out of the pool, Riley taught at Hyattsville Middle School for 26 years. His principle "It's all about the kids", is truly reflected in his life work. Riley passed away on August 4, 2023 and will be sorely missed.
We will be honoring Riley this December by renaming the Holiday Invitational meet to the Riley Eaton Holiday Invitational. In doing so, we are giving every registered swimmer a white RMSC silicone cap with his initial JRE. We ask that swimmers participating in any meet this December (Reindeer Mini Meet, Christmas Champs, Turkey Claus, US Open, and our own Riley Eaton Holiday Invitational) wear this swim cap to honor Riley and all his work he did for RMSC over the years.