The Morning Swim Show, August 10, 2011: Brian Schrader’s Denver Pioneers Excelling in Classroom and Pool

PHOENIX, Arizona, August 9. TODAY'S edition of The Morning Swim Show features the head swim coach at the University of Denver, Brian Schrader.

Schrader talks about the men's team top rank in the Scholar All-America list, and how he works as a coach to keep the student-athletes' priorities in check. He also talks about his team's potential at the NCAA level and what he sees in the coming years in the pool. Watch the full show in the video player below and visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

Special Thanks to Finis for sponsoring the Morning Swim Show's interview segments in the Finis Monitor. Visit Finis to learn more about their innovative products for aquatic athletes.

Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is the Morning Swim Show for Thursday, August 10, 2011. I'm your host, Peter Busch, in the FINIS monitor today. We'll talk to Brian Schrader, he's the head men's and women's swim coach at Denver University. Their men's team just received the prestigious honor. Coach Schrader joins us right now in the FINIS monitor from Junior Nationals in Palo Alto. Hey coach, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Brian Schrader: Good, how are you doing?

Peter Busch: Good. Doing a little recruiting out there?

Brian Schrader: Doing a little recruiting, enjoying Palo Alto, and watching swimming.

Peter Busch: Anybody specific on the radar?

Brian Schrader: Oh several, but I can't comment on that.

Peter Busch: Not yet, huh? Well your men's team just was named the top team in the Scholar All-American rankings, ahead of Harvard. Congratulations!

Brian Schrader: Thanks, we're pretty excited.

Peter Busch: That's impressive stuff – 3.44 GPA. Did I get that right?

Brian Schrader: That's right.

Peter Busch: What is Denver University known for in terms of academics?

Brain Schrader: Well we're small; we're 5000 undergraduate students, but the academics we're well known for business and law.

Peter Busch: So when your guys says "Coach, I've got this big meet coming up. you want me to do doubles every single day but I've got to study" do you think you're more lenient than maybe other coaches are?

Brain Schrader: You know I don't think so. I think we're pretty honest about where we are in the season and of course I think when we're approaching finals we're pretty honest with the athletes – that's the focus – and we really allow them some flex time during that period but when we're full on regular season we don't have very many missed practices for academics and when somebody tells me they need time I think it's a pretty serious request and we usually try to work it out.

Peter Busch: It's difficult though in this day and age of competitive swimming, at the Division 1 level, finding that balance between athletics and academics, is it not?

Brian Schrader; I think it's truly a hard thing to find and I think we talk about priorities as a team and I don't think that we're much different than any other serious program. We talk about school, swimming, and social in that order.

Peter Busch: Well your women, we should mention, not too shabby — 3.43 GPA – so you've got smart kids all around.

Brian Schrader: Yeah, smart kids all around. Five years ago, my first year at Denver, both the teams were number one in the country but both are still performing at the GPA level where I came in and that was something we talked about as a team – establishing a tradition. It's funny to hear the upperclass men tell the freshmen what's expected and where they need to be on the GPA radar.

Peter Busch: So it's not just on what's happening in the pool which is what you get with a lot of teams. They're really pushing each other in the classroom as well?

Brian Schrader: That's right. They'll hear it if their GPA is lower than the team average.

Peter Busch: That's fantastic. That's great, that's what college athletics should be all about.

Brain Schrader: You would hope so.

Peter Busch: Like you said – school, swimming, social. Well we should know, you have some pretty good swimmers there as well. Grace Kittle, top 8 in the 200 breast stroke at NCAA this past march; first woman ever from DU to be an All-American, correct?

Brain Schrader: That's right.

Peter Busch: Tell us about Grace.

Brain Schrader: Grace – it's a pretty unusual story because I don't think it happens very often this way on the women's side. She came in at about 2:22, 200 breast stroke, and tall athletic girl; short course, that's right, and really came in. She's been a hard worker for four years, she qualified for NCAA in her freshman year and finished 17th by I think 100 so she almost scored her freshman year and really has been motivated since then to get back and score. She's also suffered a little bit of an injury. She had to take a redshirt year. But really I think her journey was her own and really used our program as a tool to get better, not only as an athlete but a student, and she was a great hard worker, good to coach, and knew how she wanted to finish and did a nice job at doing that.

Peter Busch: Describe your training philosophy.

Brain Schrader: I would say that I'm pretty old school. I came from Texas in Georgia and those programs get the work done and I think we do too. I think we do like to talk about technique and make sure that we're dong things that allow kids to be world class but I think we can say we get the work done and I think altitude helps us be fitter and faster and I think we have a great strength coach – and all of those things I think play in helping kids swim fast and get to the next level.

Peter Busch: So what is the next level for Denver University swimming? What do you think is realistic?

Brian Schrader: Well I think it's realistic for us to have kids at NCAA's every year or I think it's realistic for us to be contending for conference titles every year and our next goal, our next level is [inaudible 5:06] to the meet on a consistent basis.

Peter Busch: Well coach, good luck with our goals, and good luck at Junior Nationals on the recruiting trail.

Brain Schrader: Thanks a lot. I appreciate the time.

Peter Busch: All right, sounds good. That's Coach Brian Schrader joining us from Palo Alto, the coach at Denver University. That is it for today's show. I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.

Subscribe to this show FREE via iTunes!

To purchase this or previous episodes of The Morning Swim Show, to send comments or show suggestions, click here to send an email.

To purchase copies of our Ready Room interviews, click here.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use