TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

Last weekend, you had your first two meets as an NCAA head coach. What was your impression of the team after beating both Canisius and Siena?
The team has progressed in the short period of time we’ve been together. They are swimming very smart and very confident.

You’ve been with the program for five years as an assistant before becoming the interim head coach this season. Has that made the transition to head coach easier for you, knowing the program, swimmers and the University?
Absolutely. It’s a lot easier to come in and not have to win your team over and learn the new names and faces and everything that goes around being a head coach around the University. It definitely made it a lot easier.

You worked with former coach Dorsi Raynolds for five seasons before she moved on to coach both the men’s and women’s teams at Drew this year. What parts of her coaching style were you able to learn from?
She was a very, very good people person. In that aspect of coaching, she really helped me to grow in the last five years.

Another great resource that you have is men’s head coach Budd Termin, who is not just a coach, but someone who has spent his career also learning about the physics of swimming through his extensive research with the Center for Research and Education in Special Environments. How nice is it to have a resource like him in an office right next door?
It’s awesome. He’s already been testing our girls and getting them working with some of his technology to improve and move forward. We’re working on our push-offs and right now, (Budd’s working on) showing our drag and how long they need to be underwater for and not underwater for.

What are some unique facets of UB’s pool that people might not realize from looking at it?
There’s no chlorine in the main competition pool and this is a very, very fast pool. There’s very little waves in the lane. The lanes die pretty fast as you swim and race in them because we do have double-lane lines in the main competition pool. It makes a big difference. It makes this a very fast pool.

Swimming is a sport where many coaches change the training throughout the year. What are some things that you do to keep your swimmers fresh throughout the year?
I give them recovery days. Having lots of meets really helps them stay fresh, stay focused on what they’re doing. I try to break the season up into small increments rather than one big season so they can feel they’re getting somewhere throughout the year.

There are four main styles of swimming that are competed at a meet, freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke. When watching a race, what are some things we can expect to see that might be different between the styles?
The freestyle and backstroke are long-action strokes, so we’re working on body rotation and the length of their strokes. Butterfly and breaststroke are short-action strokes, so we’re not working on the length of their strokes, but the power that is generated from the pressing in the core of their stroke.

For the last four years, you had the opportunity to coach Jenn Brankovsky, a two-time Mid-American Conference Swimmer of the Year. What was it like being able to coach someone who was able to earn so many honors and win so many championships during her career?
Jenn was great. She was an individual that listened and wanted to learn, wanted to get better. She was going to work hard to get better. As a coach, a lot of times, it’s not easy to come by. She had it all and it made coaching enjoyable for anyone that ever coached her.

At the Olympics in 2004, Michael Phelps won seven gold medals, putting swimming on the front of sport pages across the country for two weeks. Has his performance encouraged more young people to start to swim?
I don’t know that it's encouraged them to swim, but I think it’s brought more media and more enthusiasm around swimming, what it actually is and what it entails and how the racing part of it is very competitive.

What has been your favorite moment at UB?
Every year, getting to MACs and swimming at the MAC Championships. Just seeing the competitiveness on our faces and the joy at the end of the meet has been, to me, the most enjoyable part of being here.

“The 10 Questions With…” feature is compiled by Joe Guistina.