Lots going on

I have been way too busy to post much. Between summer school and all of my other responsibilities I hardly have time to breathe, but still it has been a pretty fun summer. I spent the weekend at my first USA meet in over three years. I had fun even though it was in the high 90's all weekend. It was 10 lanes and prelim/final in Ft Smith, Arkansas, so it was very different from the summer league stuff I had been doing.

I like to tell the little guys on my teams that if they DQ, they have to buy me something from Dairy Queen... so it was a nice surprise on my weekly Monday field trip to the zoo when we came across the DQ mobile giving away free Blizzards. Maybe I can get them to come to one of my home meets and kids can turn in their DQ slips for a discount. Another surprise: one of the workers giving away the free Blizzards was a girl who was on the club where I took my first assistant coaching gig 14 years ago. She is about to enter her last season of swimming at the Savannah College of Art & Design, and is home for the summer and working out in the heat. As Steven Wright said, "it's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it."

At the zoo, I also got lucky and took this video of an otter with my phone. They are my favorite part of the zoo. They really put on a show today.

I feel bad that I haven't had time lately to post about the new "Swim Blogs United" effort. I am really excited about it. I have to hand it to Andy and Braden and The Swimmers Circle. They have been at the center of a really spectacular initiative to raise awareness to save college swimming programs. Read about it here. If you wish to donate, if you click on the SBU Logo on the right hand side of my blog, it will take you to a Go For 5 page that is set up to track donations made through us. Please give to the cause. I even put a two full page ad in the heat sheet of the summer league meet we hosted last weekend. If you are hosting a meet, go to the Go for 5 site and print their pdf's to put in yours! Help us get the word out any way you can!!

Wanna Work with the Viking?

I don't have all the details yet, but the club I founded will be looking for a head coach to start in August. If you are curious and want to hear more, let me know. Our part of the country is one of the cheapest to live in and even through we are not in a metro area we draw swimmers in from a large radius as well.

We will want someone who is a good communicator, is willing to learn the ins and outs of the Team Unify website and serve as an administrator, is willing and able to work with all ability levels, and can help to train assistant coaches to create a good system from beginners to the top. When we formally post the job opening I will put a link up. Spread the word if you know someone looking to move. We got a club to build!

The New SwimmingWorld.TV !

Has anyone else noticed that if you type SwimmingWorld.TV into your address bar, it takes you someplace different than where the link from Swimming World's site takes you? Go ahead, try it. You will be impressed. SWTV has been completely redesigned!

They aren't doing a grand opening yet as it is still under construction, but Jason Marsteller gave me a sneak peek and has finally given me permission to "Release the Hounds!" I have spent a little time browsing the site and I am very excited. It looks like the TV site is just the first phase of a complete overhaul of Swimming World Magazine's web presence. From the looks of what they have done so far, it will be a tremendous improvement.

Their flash on the main page has a great look. Their archives are much easier to search than in the past. My favorite new feature: when you are on an Event page, you can easily pull up any event you want to watch from their event list on the left side of the page.

Check it out!

Randy Horner is heading to Miami!

I have known about it for a couple of weeks, and now I guess it is safe to announce it. The cat is out of the bag. My good friend Randy Horner is making the move from the University of New Orleans to Florida International University.

Best of luck with the transition!

Speaking of OLD PEOPLE...

I call Jim Whytlaw the “papa smurf” of Missouri swimming because not only does he have the white hair and the wisdom, but he also sports a red shirt and blue Crocs on deck often and that is where my “child of the 80‘s“ brain goes when I see him wear them. Jim has been a high school coach in Springfield for 37 years. Before that he was an all-conference diver at BYU way back when competitive diving was still done from docks and bridges instead of springboards and platforms. Jim announced his retirement from coaching last night. I found the link on USA Today! I guess it is big news even outside of our little SW Missouri fish bowl.

Jim has had a lot of great teams at Glendale High School. His Win-Loss record is nearly impossible to fathom: 810-58!! His Falcons have finished in the top 4 at the MSHSAA meet 9 times. This year was their highest finish ever for boys and girls. Both teams were second place at the big meet, with an impressive move-up for the boys and a tremendous nail-biter for the girls. The girls’ championship came down to the last relay, where Glendale was edged out by three tenths at the end of one of the most exciting meets I have attended.

Jim has been an NFHS Regional Coach of the Year three times, and in 2008 he was chosen to be their National Coach of the Year. His local accolades are too numerous to list. He has been at the heart of swimming in Missouri for decades. There are pictures of several of Jim’s State Champions and All-Americans on the wall at the John H. Foster Natatorium that most of the teams in SW MO share for practices and meets. In the last few years of his career, he also helped Marshfield High School to start a team by just adding those responsibilities to his already busy workload.

It is easy to say that Coach Whytlaw has touched the lives of many students and swimmers who have gone on to become successful people when they go out into the world. He is a man who understands the place of athletics within the scholastic setting, and is not afraid to speak up to do what is right for kids. I pick on Jim about being old, only because he has become a good friend through coaching and he is quick to make those jokes about himself. He has never had any problem keeping up with us whippersnappers who weren’t even alive yet when he started teaching math.

Congratulations, Jim. May your retirement be as relaxing and rewarding as your coaching career was productive. It has been a joy and an honor to get my butt kicked by you for the last third of your career!

Swimming Videos on Floswimming

Schooled by the Masters!

Anyone out there remember in 1986, how The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen helped to change everything in comics? Both were stories of superheroes coming out of retirement after disappearing for years. They were groundbreaking for many reasons. They were two of the books that forced the comics industry to grow up. For the first time, comic book authors had acknowledged that these characters must age like we do. Age brings different motivations and a whole new perspective. This was some hard-core fiction.

The picture is from the Dark Knight Returns, and it finally answered one of those long standing questions that comic geeks had argued about for decades: Could Batman defeat Superman? Hell yeah, he can. Even when he is aged and broken down. Even against someone who does not age and is virtually immortal, he was going to finish the fight as the last man standing. His age made the story that much more interesting. His motivations and tactics were very different because of it. He outmatched Supes in a story that screamed of symbolism, not just of the power of a mortal man fighting to uphold an ideal, but of men doing what is right as opposed to doing what is lawful. He was essentially "sticking it to The Man."

At Masters Nationals last weekend, Jon Blank turned in a 59.94 for his 100 scy breaststroke. Jon is 50 years old.

Waitaminnit... 50?

This isn't a comic book. It's for real. Good God, that is amazing! There were three guys in the 45-49 age group under 1:00 as well! So now my goal of getting under a minute in my teens, 20's and 30's doesn't seem like such a big deal. I need to hit it for two more decades to even keep up with these bad boys.

Also, don't get me started about Rich Abrahams and his 22.10 50 free. He is 65. Now that he is retirement age, I expect to see him get even faster. He will have more time to commit to being a bad-ass! I imagine the days of tech-suits are not over for this guy. He will be wearing it as he fights crime when he can't sleep at night because he can't contain the energy of his awesomeness. Maybe he will try something like the McNaughton Trail Run (200 Mile Ultra-Marathon) next.

In my eyes these people, and masters swimmers in general, are doing something heroic. They are making a statement as living symbols of an exciting ideal. They are showing us that age really means nothing and that fitness is a lifetime endeavor. In their own way, these guys are sticking it to The Man. They are telling The Man to get off his lazy butt and stop making excuses for not living his life to the fittest and fullest.

I almost feel bad for writing this. I feel that by marveling at their age, I might be insulting them. They are ignoring their age, and people like me keep bringing it up. I can imagine Dara Torres gets sick of talking about how old she is. Jaring Timmerman probably hates it even more. It's not like I am calling them "Oldy Olsen" and pointing my finger at them, but still... I just imagine that if I interviewed them and said something about how old they are, it might look a lot like that picture of Batman and Superman, with me getting punched in the face instead.

Masters swimming rocks. It seems to me that it is the perfect place to be surrounded by friends who share a love for the sport, in an environment that is both extremely laid-back and hard-core all at the same time.

I think it might be time for me to start a masters team in my neck of the woods. What should I call it?

SAVE UCD SPORTS!

This note was a part of the CSCAA News- Post Convention Report. It was forwarded to me from someone on the mailing list. I have cut and pasted it here to help spread the word.

SAVE UCD SPORTS!
TAKE A YEAR, DO IT RIGHT

Please contact UC Davis Chancellor Katehi (530-752-2065 chancellor@ucdavis.edu ) and UC Davis Vice Chanceller Fred Wood ( 530 752-6866) fewood@ucdavis.edu ) let them know that you support reinstating the athletic teams for a one year window in order to allow a committee of faculty, administrators and students to fairly assess other potential budget cuts that could save these sports.

The decision making process has been filled with inequities, mistakes and a lack of transparency:

· UC Davis cut Men's Swimming and Diving, Men's Wrestling, Women's Rowing and Men's Indoor Track giving the teams only a 6 week notice.
· 85% of funding for UCD athletics comes from students voluntary self-tax
· 22% student-athletes cut
· 0% administrators and staff cut
· 1993 there were 1,000 student-athletes w/ $2 million budget
· Fall 2010 520 student-athletes w/students providing $12 million of budget
· Students had previously voted in 1993, 1994 and 2003 to voluntarily self-tax themselves to finance athletics on the condition that no teams be cut.
· Initially the Athletic Department was required to reduce their budget by $1.79 million. The chancellor was able to restore $1 million to the budget and yet the committee persisted in cutting the teams.
· 2 faculty members resigned from the committee due to concerns of fairness.
· Not a transparent or fair process

http://saveucdsports.com/