|
NCSA Junior Nationals "The Rest of the Story"
by Head coach Geoff Brown
An AM lap swimmer congratulated me
this morning about the honors the team gathered in Orlando a week
ago. Since she seemed genuinely interested, I told her what
the late Paul Harvey might have termed “the rest of the
storyý. I recount this because I think it is truly
instructive for every parent and every swimmer; I hope that the
very swimmers who produced these triumphs also take time to remind
themselves how the 2009 NCSA Championships came to be. Maybe it
started several years ago in 2006 when we first brought home a
banner - actually 2 banners. Someone on the girls’ team
was needling Jeffrey Miller about something to do with the meet and
he had had enough. So he fired out, “We were first, you
made us secondý. He was referring to the men’s
triumph and the women’s failure to win a similar
victory. Flash forward a few years: every women’s team
since then has heard Jeffrey’s statement in some
fashion. Was it nice? A little chippy at best. Was
it true? Absolutely. He nailed it. The truth
doesn’t always sit well with folks - sometimes for the right
reasons, sometimes for the wrong reasons. The women’s
team took it well, winning in 2008 and 2009 the women’s NCSA
title. This year’s combined win began last year. In
2008, NOVA moved to the lead sometime on the third day, as I
recall, and we held it through the fourth day. We knew the
5th day would be tough: it would be extremely difficult,
even unlikely, for us to hold our lead. RMSC loomed large in
the side and rear view windows and we definitely sensed that they
were closer than they appeared to be. Our hopes rested on the
200 IM’s, the distance free’s and the medley
relays. We were awesomely tough; after the AM session, it was
clear, however, that we had failed to assure our triumph. We
needed an RMSC meltdown or a huge relay mistake to win. We got
neither of those hopes. We won the women’s title,
finished 2nd in the men’s and 2nd
overall. It was our best showing ever - three
banners. After finals, we gathered the team to speak to them
of the meet and of the next day’s travel plans. They
were quiet. The word despondent would have described them
well. They had lost on the final night, a team that prides
itself on final day performances had lost. We reminded them
that they had accomplished much, had reason to be proud and that we
would be back in 2009 with a women’s team that returned an
overwhelming majority of its points.
So
the wins of this year began on that night. The disappointment
of 2008 would yield to the triumph of 2009 but only because the
returning swimmers took the loss the right way. They were
determined to come back and be better. They had been knocked
down but they were rising to their feet that same night. How
we respond to adversity says a lot about who we are; how our
children respond to adversity says a lot about how we are raising
them. Disappointment is part of every triumph. The
winners are those who took the lemons of disappointment and made
some lemonade. That was our NOVA swimmers. We let them taste
their defeat - we shared it with them - but we reminded them that
something could be made of that collective
despondency.
And
so it was. The triumph of the NOVA men was truly
remarkable. We graduated most of our big guns, the scorers of
the year before. David Wren, Jordan Arencibia, Colin Heinrich,
Gaites Brown - all gone. And those big guns had finished
second. We had to count on a new group of guys. We knew
they were talented; we also knew they were largely untested. Only a
few individual point scorers returned. This year’s crew
rose to the challenge. Brooks Ross replaced Colin’s
points in the 1000 & 1650; Thomas Stephens replaced his 500
free points; Thomas replaced Gaites’ 200 free; Hunter Knight
replaced Jordan’s breaststroke points; Alex Lutterbein
replaced himself by moving from 9th to 2nd.
Mac Anthony and Dimitri Higgins gave us sprint and relay strength
and Tom Sheranek gave us dust-up performances in the 100 and 200
back and 400 IM to replace the points of David Wren. And the relays
were all important and it was there that we received a major boost
from Conor Blackwood. If Conor recalled 2008 Juniors, it
probably wasn’t with a smile. He had false started on a
relay that had finished 2nd in the AM and that call
haunted us throughout the meet. Conor had certainly tasted
bitter disappointment that 2008 year. 2009 was a different
story. He was only one of four on each relay but he definitely
pulled his oar. Each of his relay legs was a triumph where
there had been disaster a year before. He focused on changing
the outcome and did that splendidly. I mention Conor not to
praise him above anybody else but because he took the shadow of
great disappointment to this meet in a way that no one else
did. Unless you consider Tom Sheranek, who had managed to come
to many Juniors and never score a point, culminating in last
year’s Juniors spent at least partly in an emergency room
laid low by dehydration. Placed unexpectedly in the 4 X 200
free relay by the coaching staff, Tom delivered a lifetime best
1:40 split and followed that with strong shows in the 100 & 200
back and 400 IM. Like Conor, Tom erased last year’s
memories with a sense of a job well done. A Championship meet
consists of so many small pieces fitting together, of so many
decisions coming to fruition.
The
girls were mostly outstanding. They accounted for the bulk of
the 40 state records set by NOVA at the meet. They were the
2008 champions and let everyone else know that on the very first
night: three Top 16 1650 performances and strong medley relays
announced that we were back and that we would be a factor. During
the course of the meet, Rachel Naurath, Elisa Worrell, Allison
Titley and Rebecca Rainer would each set individual state records!!
Our relays hammered state and national records. One of the
best relays can be viewed on Flo Swim: the girls’ 800 free
relay. They won, they broke state and national records but the
video attempts to tell a different story. Throughout most of
the video, the announcers sing the praises of the Woodlands relay
which led through the first three legs of the race. But
Woodlands had spent its coin in the first three legs and had only a
small lead to show for it. At the 700 meter mark, Allison
Titley hammered a last 100 that put Woodlands comfortably
distant. The commentators talked about our girls for the
briefest spell but it was the best part of the race.
I
can’t say that the 33 young men and women who comprised our
team came every day and every afternoon. I can’t say
that they practiced every day as if last spring’s wound was
still raw. But they remembered. And they got better, week
by week. The irritant of last spring worked its magic: we
produced a pearl of a meet. NOVA swimmers reacted as athletes
should when a meet doesn’t go their way. They set goals,
trained harder and dug down deep in Orlando. And here’s the
funny thing: for the swimmers attending the 2009 NCSA Nationals,
the pain of 2008 is mostly excised, replaced by this better
outcome.
Sorry for the long blurb but this is, as I noted
in the intro, a story that will have its resonance for anyone who
cares to read it and listen carefully to its
lessons. Something of a full circle moment drew this tale to a
perfect close this Monday afternoon. Jeff Miller, father of
the Jeffrey Miller mentioned in the bit about the 2006 team,
stopped by to offer his hearty congratulations and to gaze at the
2009 banners with a big grin on his face. His son would have
approved of the team effort that brought a NCSA combined title to
Gayton Road: 1st place men, 1st place
women.
|
