She Chose Division II

Just like you, I am anxiously waiting for the D1 meet to start. The delay is really emotionally crippling for us swim-nerds. Luckily, Molly Brown, a former athlete from my program, came to visit the pool while in town for spring break-- so of course I stuck a camera in her face to ask her about her first year of college swimming. She was an All-American at D2 Nationals for Drury.

Enjoy.

An Open Letter to My Diving Friends

Dear Divers,

Lately, the swimming community hasn’t been very nice to you. I feel bad. I have to admit, I used to scratch my head a little bit and wonder why swimming and diving are together in scholastic swim meets. Sometimes we seemed to gel, and being forced to hang out like step brothers wasn’t so bad… and other times, it was like we were serving on the same chain gang, with our ankles connected so that if one of us sunk, the other would surely drown too. Many meets are decided based on who has divers, or even whose facility has a diving board to offer diving. No one likes that… but now I am a high school coach and I can see the larger picture. I am one of those rare coaches who makes his swimmers go early to watch the divers, even if it means getting on the bus at 5:45am instead of 8:45am to head to the pool. On the other side of it, we are a small team, and my divers have never failed to step up and fill those empty relay spots when we needed them.

In college, I was a little uncomfortable around you guys at first. Swimmers dress for maximum comfort. We wear sweat pants. Divers wear slacks. Divers have highlights in their hair and go tanning. Swimmers don’t bother to shower after practice. Divers eat things like salads when they have paid for a meal plan that allows them to fulfill every gluttonous desire. Swimmers out-eat football players, and then hit subway for two more $5 foot-longs right before bed. The truth is, hanging out with you keeps me grounded in the real world. Your inspiration has helped me a little with the ladies, too. If it weren’t for you, I would have probably gone clubbing in sweat pants and no deodorant all those years and never noticed that I didn’t fit in. We sometimes meet in the middle and I want to say thanks for the gentle nudge to keep me within society’s standards.

You guys also held your ground in way swimmers were afraid to do… we moved on from briefs, to jammers, to full body plastic nightmares, and then back to briefs. You were man enough to just stick with the brief and even had the nuggets to ostracize the new kid on the team who showed up to his first practice in jammers. I have to admire that kind of macho attitude. Plus, I have seen several of you with broken noses, black eyes and concussions from hitting the board and even taking your own knee to the face without taking a day off. My hat is off to you. Your pain is different from ours, but no less impressive.

When I hear the diver-haters pleading their case, it does make sense on some level. I can see how swimmers could be swayed. The sports are entirely different even though they are on the same playing surface; but we also share something else. We share our status as Olympic sports, and Olympic sports are under attack in the modern era. Anyone who is angry when a swimming program gets cut at the high school or college level, should be ashamed of themselves for being so willing to throw another Olympic sport to the wolves.

I've got your back, my flippy, twisty friends. I won’t abandon you. We have been together for a long time, and I am proud to fight to keep it that way.

Never leave a man behind.


--Viking!

Brad Hamman: All Guns Blazing

So, the Missouri Girls' High School meet prelims have concluded. It has been a big day for Missouri swimming. We have inducted our first coach into the newly formed MISCA Hall of Fame. The team race is on fire for the top 3 spots. The depth is crazy and the finishes that determined 9th and 17th were close all the way across the board. Triumph and tragedy! Crying and cheering!

... and being the sorry excuse for a blogger that I am, all I can bring you is a link to prelim results and an interview where I am having fun picking on one of the officials.

Man, I suck at this.

Brad referee's my home meets. We swam together in college. I feel I have the right to rib him a little. Gotta give him props for playing along!

Heading to State!!

We are about to load up the car to drive across Missouri to hit the Girls' State Meet. SwimmingWorld.TV won't be covering the meet this year, as MSHSAA is partnering with When We Were Young Productions to provide their own coverage. I am not sure of the details, but they might actually have a live stream. Should be awesome.

I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, so maybe I can snag some interviews or something while I am there. I have permission to make a highlight reel and other non-full-race footage if I have time to mess with it. It should be a fun weekend.

See ya there!

Congrats to Jason Hite- Regional Coach of the Year!

From the Springfield News-Leader:

"The National Federation of State High School Associations has named Springfield's Jason Hite its Midwest Region Coach of the Year. Hite coaches the boys' and girls' swim teams at Kickapoo High School and the boys' teams at Nixa and Greenwood. Kickapoo's boys' team finished eighth at the state championship meet in November, its fourth consecutive top-eight finish under Hite. Kickapoo's girls team posted the best finish in its history, seventh, at the state meet last February.

The NFHS midwest region is comprised of Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, and only one coach from that six-state region is chosen each year for the NFHS honor. The NFHS has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982."

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I have had the honor of getting my butt kicked by the Kickapoo Chiefs for over ten years now with Hite at the helm for most of it. I am embedding an interview below with him and Rockhurst's Paul Winkeler after prelims at the MSHSAA boys' state meet, where you get to see a little bit of what it is really like to be on deck with him.

Fear the 'POO!

Swimming Videos on Floswimming

How do you turn it around?

So, what do you do when you go to the big meet and it doesn’t start off the way you had hoped? Sometimes you can do everything right: the training, the taper, no colds, no flu… and it still ain’t there. My girls had a mediocre prelim yesterday at our conference meet. There were some good swims, but the excitement never built up the way it usually does for that meet.

We all try to pretend that it doesn’t matter, but the first few swims of a meet have a way of setting the tone for an entire weekend of racing. There is some sort of psychological tie that teammates have that can cause a meet to either snowball down the hill and turn into something spectacular or melt before it gets rolling down the hill at all.

On my team we talk about the fact that what goes on in our minds is one of the few things that we can control. We visualize. We maintain positive self-talk. We take responsibility for our part in motivating the people around us to do their best for the sake of the team… but sometimes, it is just not there. You know… that underlying buzz. That layer of excitement that transcends a typical, in-season meet and helps athletes to believe that they will be amazing just because being at the big meet with your team behind you is amazing. While this is an individual sport, it is undeniable that one of our greatest motivators is the team concept, and the synergy that comes with it can be rocket fuel. Unfortunately, it can also become an anchor, even when we know better than to let it.

What do you do when it just doesn’t click?

Let me tell you what Fat Jack did for us once. (Yes, we affectionately called Coach Steck at Missouri State “Fat Jack.” I still do, twelve years out.) At the 1996 Missouri Valley Championship, we thought it was the year we were going to take the title away from the Saluki’s. We were swimming well enough to be on track until, BAM-- relay DQ. Jack adds up the scores and we are still in the game, but he is visibly angry. He protests and is denied. That evening he looks over the scores and realizes we are still in it, until the next day when--- KABLAM! ANOTHER RELAY DQ!

This was at the SIU home pool. The Saluki’s knew we had their number. Accusations flew. There was a lot of anger. Ugly anger. The meet was delayed in heated protests. If you have never seen Jack Steck on a tirade, you have not seen it all in swimming. His scalp glows red, veins pop out of his forehead, foam drips from his mouth… he is kind of like Rodney Dangerfield’s evil Doppelganger when he gets mad. He has been called the Bobby Knight of swimming. We even got dressed and almost loaded up to go home at this same meet over an underwater dolphin kick DQ the year before.

Did we screw up? Yes. Is Jack Steck the most patient and wise coach in the world? Nah… but he is a damn good coach. There are some things that Jack can do that I might work at for my entire career and never come close. Jack can make a sale. He can convince some darn good swimmers to come to Missouri State even with one of the most pathetic facilities in the nation…. and he sold us on the idea that we could still swim fast, even when things aren’t going our way; even when that conference championship was no longer on the line.

Rather than chew us out on the break between prelims and finals on the last day, Jack took a different route and did what he does best. He made us laugh. We thought we were having a meeting to finally tell us that the loss of 64 points had put the nail in the coffin of the dream of our first MVC championship. Instead, we got to hear the story about when he was in college and courting his future wife. He went skydiving on a dare just because he wanted to impress her. It was a long story, but I will never forget it. The story ended with him soiling himself on a date, and our team meeting ended with a group of 18 to 23 year old men rolling in the bleachers laughing our asses off. Just like the tirades, if you haven’t heard Jack Steck tell a story, you haven’t seen it all in swimming.

We swam great that day in finals. We swept the breaststrokes. We walked away feeling like bad-asses. Feeling like a damn good team-- and I walked away with a lesson that I have carried with me into my coaching career: Help them relax. Remind them that the big meet is a celebration where they get to see the pay-off from all of their hard work.

I am planning to make my girls laugh today before we warm-up for finals. Let’s see if we can turn this one around.

Conference Central is Online!

Collegeswimming.com has CONFERENCE CENTRAL up and running. I guarantee I am going to run down the battery on my iphone several time this weekend pulling up results.

Of course, I have to take this as an opportunity to brag on my Missouri State Lady Bears who had a heck of a first night at the Missouri Valley Championships. They are leaving the 5 team field behind with wins in both the 200 Free and 400 Medley Relays. Brianna Willoughby took the 200 IM with three seconds separating her from second place in 2:05.58, and Freshman Amber Green owned the 50 by 4 tenths, turning in a 23.30.

The swim of the night though, was turned in by a Saluki. Southern Illinois' Freshman Kristen Groome turned in a 4:44.48 in the 500 which was not only an SIU team record; it took the Valley record by over ten seconds and broke Janie Coontz' pool record from 1983 by a solid four!

WOW.

I don't think anyone doubts that Coach Rick Walker can get a distance swimmer ready to race. He wasn't named America's Open Water Swimming Man of the Year for his good looks!

Way to go Valley girls! Keep it up!