The Power of Belief: Can Do

Feature by Michael J. Stott

PHOENIX, Arizona, June 5. SOMETIMES, for whatever reason, athletic teams are just so good victory is almost a foregone conclusion, i.e. the 1976 United States men's Olympic swimming team or the 1995 University of Michigan men's team.

“That team was ranked number one all year and they trained and performed like it,” says then Wolverine coach Jon Urbanchek. Gustavo Borges (50, 100, 200) and Tom Dolan (500, 1650) won every freestyle at NCAAs for a team that had 13 members make the U.S. and international Olympic squads. “We had so much talent we couldn't give the meet away,” says Urbanchek.

But most times championships require athletes and coaches to dig deep, man up and find ways to dodge long odds or least recent history. Exhibit A, the 2011 Division III men's swimming and diving championships where Denison ended Kenyon's 31-year run.

So why Denison and that year? A fall alumni gathering produced a locker room sign, “Don't be afraid of failure, but be afraid of being forgotten.” Blessed with senior leadership and a talented freshmen class eight-time NCAA Coach of the Year Big Red coach Gregg Parini went to work.

“The freshmen were very confident (miler Allen Weik won the 1650 free at NCAAs in record time, 15.06.47), and that confidence rubbed off on other people. Gregg was able to make us believe we had a chance,” says junior backstroker Robert Barry.

“A coach prepares his swimmers the best he can, but at some point it's up to the swimmers,” says Barry. “As we began to meet and exceed championship meet goal times we began to ask 'why can't it be us who beats Kenyon?' We wanted to take them down.

“We had never trained as hard as we did this year. There was so much competition in practice and meets. Lifting weights, no slacking off. The team embraced the challenge. I think I finally realized that this year,” says Barry. Along with renewed focus on training, Barry also took his coach's advice on rest and diet more seriously. “Gregg taught me a lot of things about swimming. It's too bad it took me until junior year to figure it out,” he says.

After the light dawned Barry had a championship first in the 100 back (48.39), seconds in the 200 back (1:47.29) and the medley relays and Parini, by one point, had his second national title (first, Denison women, 2001).

Frank Busch, now USA Swimming national team director, noted after his University of Arizona NCAA men's and women's double in 2008 that “sometimes the meet fits the team.” It was certainly true for his Wildcats.

“And sometimes circumstances play a big role in championships,” recalls Peter Daland of Southern California's one point victory over Indiana at 1974 NCAAs. “We should not have won. We were not the best team that year and I told the team that.” But Indiana mistakes, a winning relay DQ, a 3-meter diver meltdown and inspired Trojan performances by Jack Tingley, Steve Furniss, John Naber and others paved the way. Denison benefitted similarly from a 16th place breaststroke Kenyon disqualification that would have produced a deadlocked result.

Circumstance and inspiration are not confined to the upper echelons. In 2000 the Southampton Recreation Association in Richmond, Va. finished the James River Aquatic Club dual meet season 3-3. Coming off a disappointing regular season and uncharacteristic third in the 1999 JRAC championship meet the Southampton coaches went looking for “creative ways to inspire zeal,” says then assistant coach Dave Holland.

With entries in and the hard work done the coaching focus shifted from technique to tactics and psychological conditioning. “We wanted the kids to believe that winning was a possibility and that the final outcome would likely be decided by small matters like a good breakfast, staying cool between races and a buzz haircut,” says Holland.

Two days out Holland wrote team scores on a dry erase board:

Southampton 1220
Burkwood 1219
Country Club of Virginia 1181

“I believed that we could win and wanted to convey meet closeness. Before uncovering the board I told them that I had studied the heat sheet and had a prediction. I asked them to imagine the last day of champs and it was time for final team score results. I revealed the numbers with our team on top. The first reaction was a collective uplifting of shoulders while the second seemed more individual and private. It was as if each child realized that one of his own swims might be the difference,” he says.

The scores reinforced the coaches' message that small things would make a big difference and that every individual swim counted. Doubt never entered the picture. The swimmers wanted that challenge. In the end they did the small things very well and produced a winning margin of more than 130 points.

Flash forward to April 2010 and the Nassau County Aquatic Center in Eisenhower Park, built for the 1988 International Goodwill Games. David Stott, head coach of that 2000 Southampton team, is now a Gotham film producer and an assistant with the Saint Sebastian's Dolphinettes, a squad of 180 5-to-15 year-olds that competes in a Queens Catholic Youth Organization swim league.

Unlike fierce rival Tri-M that hails from comparatively monochromatic, well-to-do Forest Hills, the parish pool is the nexus for neighborhoods with swim team members that speak 23 different languages. “Our roster is a rainbow of names like Escobar, Plaskota, Ploszaj, Semczuk, Sun, Chang, Chung, Cheung, Huertas, Torres, Fernandes, Finnneran, McGrath, McHugh, Quintos, Sacchetti, Stypulkowski, Paolicelli, Yusuf, Thio, Zepeda, Zhou,” says Stott. His first day on deck he found the swimmers counting press outs in Polish.

Both SEBS and Tri-M sported committed, tenured coaching staffs that appreciated league traditions and liked to win. Tri-M had won the championship meet since 2003, but 2010 also featured some new SEBS coaching blood and the imminent retirement of long time head coach Shawn Slevin.

“Pre-meet, optimism ran high,” says Stott. “Swimmers who had heretofore expressed only mild interest in victory were painting their faces, dyeing their hair green and cheering spontaneously. Swimmers I'd seen only a few times at practice were asking the coaches' advice on how to win this race or that. One senior swimmer decided to finally learn a flip turn during meet warm ups.

“I'm not sure exactly what we said that fostered this self-belief and confidence. We had already had two close meets with Tri-M but chose not to focus on specific races, points or places, but tried to create an environment where the kids believed anything was possible and that it was within their power to win the meet, if they so chose.”

The in-meet score was announced four times. “We were neck and neck with Tri-M the whole way,” says Stott. As one swimmer won a race she was not supposed to win, the team took notice and a wonderful momentum took over. A late SEBs relay victory preceded the final meet score announcement which contained the phrase “only one point separates the top two teams,” followed by an inevitable pause, and then “Second place, Tri-M.”

Says Stott, “I have been to Metallica concerts that were not as loud as the screaming that ensued. Ordinarily quiet, humble, timid children were throwing their hands in the air, straining their vocal cords and turning red, flushed with the excitement and lack of oxygen. Our retiring coach graciously accepted the trophy and we screamed again. She wept.”

The Rest of the Story
After the meet there was a brief, 10-minute post-mortem where the coaches met and talked about 2011. It was then St. Sebastian assistant coach Dawn Hughes noticed an arithmetic error that had Tri-M not losing the meet by one but winning by 13. She was right and the score was corrected.

“We informed our team and there were tears, from us, from them and a few parents. The kids had worked so hard, had really come alive for the meet, had generated the magic necessary to overcome what was, on paper, a clearly superior adversary,” says Stott. Disappointment was deep, devastating and lingering.

That evening Stott wrote an email to the team which read in part:

“Dear Team,
I am so proud of you. You were amazing. We asked you to cheer and you cheered. We asked you to swim fast and you swam fast. You gave it everything you had… It was so much fun to be your coach today. I would not trade it for anything.

I hate to lose. And it stings, and it's awful to find out that you didn't win after you were told that you did. But the scoring error does not change the fact that the magic was there… and you made it. And you will make it again. This is a very special team we have. I am honored to be one of your coaches…

You were wonderful today and we will rise again. I will see you on deck.

Much love,

Coach Dave”

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