Motivational Monday: How Orinda Country Club Has Prepared for 22 Consecutive Summer League Championships

Photo Courtesy: Jack Hallahan

Motivational Monday: How Orinda Country Club Has Prepared for 22 Consecutive Summer League Championships

Over the past two decades, the Sharks of the Orinda Country Club in Northern California led by head coach Steve Haufler have captured 22 titles in a row at the Orinda-Moraga Pools Association (OMPA) championship meet, held in late July each year, a run stretching back to 2001 (no meet was held in 2020 due to COVID-19). Haufler’s teams have included plenty of high-level swimmers, with Tokyo Olympic water polo player Drew Holland the latest Orinda alum to wear the Stars and Stripes.

The culmination of the season is the OMPA meet, held this year July 28-30 at the Soda Aquatic Center in Moraga, Calif., and this time, it came down to less than 50 points as Orinda beat the second-place Meadow Swim Team 3983-3934.83. A dominant girls’ performance lifted Meadow, but Orinda won boys by a sufficient margin to finish on top in the combined standings.

But the magic that helps Orinda succeed year after year comes from the team’s spirit week activities held the week prior to the meet. Morgan Leischman, who coaches the team alongside Haufler cites the broken swims and goal-setting activities that OCC utilizes every year help prepare their swimmers to be at their best.

Photo Courtesy: Jack Hallahan

“One of my favorite motivation tools are the broken swims we do leading up to OMPA,” Leischman said. “Steve talks about how the broken swims mirror their capabilities and help to push swimmers to achieve more than they would have thought possible. The second tool is the OMPA goal board where each swimmer is encouraged to make a goals specific to themselves, ignoring things outside their realm of control.”

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The Orinda coaches work to remind their swimmers about the importance of work ethic and perseverance in swimming. Improvement is the goal, not always winning. The championship roster will surely feature the fastest lineup possible, but to encourage full participation among the team and keep everyone engaged, the club offers prizes for the most dedicated participants.

“One thing we do that I think really adds to success and spirit are the rewards dinners, which are for attendance,” Leischman said. “All swimmers who attend 50 practices in the season are treated to a special dinner and activity with the coaches. I love this night as anyone can attend. You just have to have put in the work through the season. This really encapsulates that if you work hard and show up, you are a huge part of the team, and to me that is what OCC really stands for.”

And this is summer league, so team spirit and team-bonding activities are always key to the team routine, with activities like tie-dying shirts and banner-making throughout the summer. It all culminates with the team’s spirit week leading up to OMPAs, and included in that is the “Fin Parade,” where cars are decorated with enormous shark fins as swimmers and families drive together to the championship site for a warmup swim prior to the meet.

Team spirit in full force fires up the swimmers from the 6-and-under to 15-18 age groups, and effective coaching, which includes race preparation and goal-setting, puts the team in position to be successful when it counts each year. That’s how Orinda Country Club has become one of the country’s most dominant summer league teams ever.

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