{"id":570196,"date":"2023-09-29T07:22:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T14:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=570196"},"modified":"2023-09-29T10:05:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T17:05:34","slug":"high-school-and-club-coach-relationships-an-intricate-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/high-school-and-club-coach-relationships-an-intricate-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"High School and Club Coach Relationships: An Intricate Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

High School and Club Coach Relationships: An Intricate Balance<\/strong><\/p>\n

The high school\/club coach relationship: Collegial or fire-and-ice? Google the subject today, and you will find the full fury of both sides and an occasional voice of reason. The debate\u2014or polarization\u2014can range from harmony and synergy to petitions, lawsuits and athletes withdrawing from one of the two teams.<\/em><\/p>\n

Consider the following scenario: On the high school side, you may hear the coach say, \u201cWelcome to the 2023 high school season. Here are the requirements: You have to be at workout six out of seven sessions, or you are not on the team.\u201d The club kids look around and ask, \u201cDoes that apply to us?\u201d And the coach goes, \u201cYeah, if you want to be on the team.\u201d And then it spirals out of control. Parents get involved, coaches get mad, and kids get confused.<\/p>\n

The extreme perspective on the club side is: \u201cI don\u2019t care about your high school team. This is where you train, you can\u2019t miss a workout. Tell the high school coach if he\/she wants you on the team, you\u2019ll be at the meets…maybe.\u201d Again, \u201cThe result is that kids who want to be with their high school friends are stuck in the middle,\u201d says a veteran high school and club coach.<\/p>\n

DIFFERENT STROKES<\/strong><\/p>\n

One dynamic that muddies the water is that states have different in-season rules for high school swimming participation. Some, like Texas (for the most part), Illinois and Minnesota, require athletes to compete and train exclusively for one or the other. Some states, Virginia, for example, allow athletes to compete in both USA Swimming and high school meets during their designated season. Others, notably California, have varying degrees of restrictions regarding same-season club and high school participation. That variability goes to the center of the issue.<\/p>\n

THE MIDDLE GROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"02

George Block – Photo Courtesy: San Antonio Sports<\/p><\/div>\n

But it doesn\u2019t have to be that way. In 2004, George Block<\/strong>, former president of ASCA and future vice president of USA Swimming and president of the World Swimming Coaches Association, authored a white paper on the subject. In it, he cited communication, continuity and respect as the guiding principles for club\/high school coach harmony. In the last 19 years, nothing has changed to alter that winning formula.<\/p>\n

Graham Westerberg<\/strong> is athletic director at the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md. For nearly 20 years, he coached a very successful girls\u2019 program whose roster included club-trained swimmers. \u201cAny time, as a high school or club coach, if you have the best interests of the athlete in mind, that\u2019s a recipe for success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my long tenure of high school coaching, there were some coaches who were phenomenal. We would develop relationships, talk constantly and make sure we were doing what was best for that particular swimmer. Of my club swimmers, I required one practice with us once a week and attendance at all meets and team functions. That gave leeway for big club meets\u2014and I expected reciprocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Westerberg admits that give-and-take was the fabric of the relationship, and \u201cthose actions seemed to be the best at keeping a swimmer on top. Communication was absolutely the key,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When things didn\u2019t work, \u201cit was because people got selfish: \u2018My swimmers should be with me every day!\u2019 That approach really impacts a high school coach who is trying to develop a team. That\u2019s where the club world is different. It\u2019s a team, but it\u2019s a different team. You want to bring people together, but when they are not around, it\u2019s hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

OLD SCHOOL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"NISCA-Insert-2018-onstott\"Mark Onstott<\/strong>, nine years retired from New Trier High School, was a multi-time president of NISCA, won seven boys\u2019 Illinois high school state championships and assisted with six girls\u2019 titles. He also steered his boys to one overall Swimming World<\/em> mythical national championship and another for public schools. In his 40-plus-year career, he coached high school swimming in Iowa, Texas and Illinois, working with similarly accomplished high school coaches.<\/p>\n

His best experiences were working in concert with club coaches rather than ones who displayed an air of superiority and discounted the coaching skills of secondary school counterparts. His real bone of contention with club coaches was with those \u201cwho were dishonest with me, didn\u2019t honor agreements made or injected doubt in the minds of swimmers I was coaching,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Where relations were not strained was when he, the New Trier\u2019s girls\u2019 coach and a club coach met weekly to discuss swimmers and what workouts were being done. \u201cWhen we did that, it was great.\u201d It helped, he notes, that the coaches were not sharing swimmers during the same competition period.<\/p>\n

ANOTHER VOICE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mike Koleber<\/strong>, ASCA board member and head coach of Nitro Swimming in Bee Cave, Texas, has a measured view of the club\/high school coach discussion: \u201cAs club coaches at Nitro, we don\u2019t care what cap the athletes are wearing at whatever championship meet they have determined to be their main priority. If it is high school divisionals, regionals, state, and they are wearing their high school team cap representing their high school team, awesome. If they have chosen to make sectionals, futures or juniors their focus and they will be wearing our Nitro cap, then we\u2019re cool with that, too. We will do our best to prepare them to the best of our ability for whatever meet they have decided is their main focal point.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I think every ninth-\u00a0or tenth-grader\u2014depending on when their first year of high school begins\u2014should give high school swimming a fair shot. There is something really special about weekly meets, wearing your school\u2019s colors\/sweats, getting your name spoken on the morning announcements and belonging to something bigger than yourself\u2014especially as an underclassman. Once they\u2019ve given it their best in that first year, they can then decide what\u2019s best for their long-term swim goals for the ensuing years of high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some high school coaches who like to work in alignment with club coaches. And there are some club coaches who reciprocate. However, we all know stories of where that relationship doesn\u2019t exist. The club coach takes an all-or-nothing stand, and\/or the high school coach does the same. That is certainly their prerogative, but ultimately, it puts the athlete in between, and that doesn\u2019t help matters much.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of years ago, one of our area high school coaches had the all-or-nothing approach\u2014mandatory 100% attendance in a group of 40+ swimmers with 100 freestyle times ranging from 45 or so north of 1:30. No assistant. Our juniors qualifiers were having to miss our a.m.\u2019s with filming, resistance training, similarly grouped high-level swimmers, season plan, etc., so they could still enjoy their high school swimming experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA group of our parents who were also part of that high school drafted a letter to the athletic director and asked me to put my name on the bottom of the letter and to join them in meeting with the AD.\u00a0I did not sign because I believe high school coaches have the right to run their programs however they want. I\u2019m not getting in the middle of it. Eventually the kids will decide what is best for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this particular case, several swimmers quit the high school team. Ultimately, the coach adjusted the requirements to a more balanced approach that allowed the higher-level kids to swim most mornings with us.\u00a0I\u2019d rather have harmony over discord. The market will sort itself out if given time. The most successful high school\/club relationships I see are the ones where there is a little give-and-take and mutual respect\u00a0shown by both parties,\u201d says Koleber.<\/p>\n

FROM THE ASHES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time was when Norfolk Academy teams dominated the Virginia independent high school swimming and diving championships, winning 15 state titles in 10 years. In the ensuing 24 years under a coach who insisted club swimmers train exclusively with him, the Bulldogs were not as successful.<\/p>\n

\"joel-shinofield-\"

Photo Courtesy:<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2018 under new coaches Joel Shinofield<\/strong> (head man at Washington and Lee University, later executive director of the CSCAA and managing director of sport development at USA Swimming) and Kristen Kirkman<\/strong>, longtime coach at ODAC, that first season brought a period of relationship building with area club coaches.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: a new lease on life for Norfolk Academy swimming. Witness finishes over the next five years for the girls\u2019 team of second\/first\/fourth\/second\/third; and the boys, first\/first\/fifth\/third\/third. In visiting club coaches, Shinofield came to an agreement on schedules and training parameters\u2014tapering, etc.\u2014that worked for swimmers and coaches alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great because we had kids in school since first grade who\u2019d never been on the team,\u201d he says. A prime example was Callie Dickinson<\/strong>. In her only year on the team, she was a four-time NISCA All-American and three-time state champion. She then matriculated to Georgia, earned seven CSCAA A-A citations and was named SEC Scholar-Athlete for 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cEstablishing the relationships wasn\u2019t that hard,\u201d says Shinofield. However, \u201cchange was hard, as some worried that club kids were going to take all the relay spots. That didn\u2019t happen. We had a girls\u2019 state championship 200 free relay team that included a rower and a top tennis player with two club swimmers. The fun part was convincing kids and parents that everyone would be better together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty\u2014we\u2019re good because of the sum of the parts. It\u2019s how you assemble them. A good coach looks at what\u2019s good for the kids. If you work backward from there, you get a good result,\u201d he says. \u201cFrankly, having kids swim high school and getting recognition for it is good for our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

A BALANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Heidary<\/strong>, World Swimming Coaches Association board member and veteran high school (Miramonte) and club coach (Orinda) in northern California, has seen it all: the good, the bad and the positive compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club\/high school relationship is one of the most complex in swimming,\u201d he says. \u201cWhile it may seem insignificant or a mere scheduling issue on the surface, this dynamic can range from a spirited experience to a highly contentious one.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd beyond the overt experience are the substantive issues of athlete training continuity and the very culture of a high school program. For the club swimmer, it is three months of training\u2014times four years! For the club team, it can potentially be a loss of membership and revenue. For the high school program, it can be the difference between mediocre programs or conference or state titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of perspective, it is a delicate balance. There are arguments\u2014literally\u2014on both sides…and they create an inherent push-pull dynamic, leaving the athlete in the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not always simply a \u2018just do what is in the best interest of the athlete.\u2019 That\u2019s because what is in the best interest of the athlete may not be in the best interest of the high school program. While there is no \u2018clean\u2019 solution, there is a workable pathway\u2014as I have observed and executed for 30-plus years\u2014if each side is willing to work with the other. Of course, there are high school coaches who simply don\u2019t care when club swimmers are at workout, only if they compete, i.e., score. While this does eliminate conflict, it presents a host of other cultural issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in situations where both sides want, or require, the athlete in attendance, the best medium is a one-third\/two-third split. The athlete spends the majority of their time training with the club and attends one or two workouts a week, plus necessary competition, meetings and activities with the high school team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tends to allow the club swimmer to maintain training continuity, albeit not ideal, yet connect with the high school program. And from this starting point, there are many variations. The keys are that an athlete\u2019s year-round commitment should be respected\u2014not disregarded\u2014by the high school coach. A club athlete wanting to represent their high school should do so to the degree that the high school is willing and flexible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time a club athlete spends with a high school program should be with the intent to support, lead and inspire high school athletes. All club swimmers should represent the pinnacle of the sport, with a leadership mindset of being a great teammate, mentor or role model.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsent this mindset and intent, club swimmers can appear distant, elitist\u2014i.e., better than\u2014and uncaring, which can create a negative stereotype not conducive to relationship building. With compromise and positive engagement, the relationship can be\u2014and should be\u2014win-win,\u201d says Heidary.<\/p>\n

Michael J. Stott is an ASCA Level 5 coach, golf and swimming writer. His critically acclaimed coming-of-age golf novel,\u00a0\u201cToo Much Loft,\u201d\u00a0is in its third printing, and is available from store.Bookbaby.com, Amazon, B&N and book distributors worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High School and Club Coach Relationships: An Intricate Balance The high school\/club coach relationship: Collegial or fire-and-ice? 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