(Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu)
As is true of many other sports, success in swimming comes only to those who log countless hours of practice and demonstrate extraordinary dedication. Although the 2012 London Olympics are still a year and a half away, U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin already spends up to seven hours a day in the pool, racking up an incalculable number of yards in the process.
And when Coughlin leaves the pool at the end of the day she has considerably more to show for it than shriveled fingers and chlorine-damaged hair. She uses that pool time time to learn from a swimmer’s best friend — repetition. Combined with a certain degree of natural ability, repetition is the key to success in swimming, and spending time in the water is the only way to get it.
So when the Fairfax County School Board voted to approve the FY2011 budget, which significantly reduced the already minimal practice time available to Northern Region swim and dive teams, members of the swimming community prepared for the worst.
Non-club swimmers would be limited to less practice time per week than Coughlin’s daily total. Club swimmers would be spared the brunt of the impact but limiting high school practice time might have changed which day of high school practice they chose to attend. Now, halfway through the season, speculation about the effects of the cuts has given way to actual observations. And opinions are much the same as those expressed when the budget was initially adopted.
Coaches, parents, and swimmers waged a months-long campaign to retain three of the four weekly practices (original proposals were to cut them from four to two), but scrapping a mid-week practice has dramatically altered the training schedule.
“[Losing our Wednesday practice] really interrupts the flow of a week, ” Langley head coach Ryan Jackson said. “Hopefully nothing has happened between Tuesday and Thursday and that everyone is still healthy.”
Of most concern for Jackson and his fellow Northern Region coaches is the disproportionate effect these practice cuts have on non-club swimmers. Said Herndon head coach Kathy McLaughlin, “I do not have as many club swimmers as Robinson, Oakton, and Westfield and it really hurts my team.”
The difficulties are similar for head coach Jen McFeely at Centreville, a team that has fewer than ten year-round swimmers. And winter break certainly did not help. Many of her swimmers were out of town for family vacations and those who were in town were crammed into two lanes – her allotted space for holiday practices.
But McFeely and others are trying to take the cuts in stride. She encourages her swimmers to use the off-day for doctor’s appointments, make-up tests, and the other unavoidable obligations high school students have. And, as McFeely pointed out, “[The Fairfax County School Board] discussed cutting the sport two years ago, so we are just happy to have it.”
Tags: AAA Northern Region, Concorde District, Oakton High School, Virginia High School Swimming
Read between the lines. What the FCPS board really wants is to see HS swim & dive go the way of the dinosaur. I was a part of both of the SOS campaigns (’91 & ’08) & the most recent (combined with the cut in practice time) will probably just end up serving as a stay of execution. Sadly, the board is a joke from top to bottom. Plus, the article didn’t make mention that the pay supplement for the head swim coach was the ONLY supplement to be cut from last season to this season. Now, the head swim coach is on par with the assistant field hockey coach.
HS Coach,
If you work in NoVa as a HS swim coach, I know that your pay is absurdly low – you are grossly-underpaid for what you do. The Board & FFXCo. seem more interested in collecting rent and mowing grass than nurturing our kids…..Football, Basketball, Soccer collect a little more revenue, but are they the best sports for our kids? With the growing evidence on permanent injury from those Board-preferred sports (ie. brain damage), swimming will prevail – hang in there.
MCPS only swims twice a week for an hour each…
Prince william County does not pay for ANY swimming and because of that we only practice 4 hours a week…which is hardly time to train. We fund it completely ourselves…so at least you get something paid for by the county…be happy for that.
As a coach in Loudoun County we are restricted to a total of 3 hours in the pool each week. Trying to field a competitive team is a joke unless you have all club kids. I know firsthand from the attitudes of our ADs they would love to drop swimming (or at the very least make it a club sport). This is football country. I don’t get how they don’t see the commitment to swimming that we have in this area. Providing a sport for 50 student-athletes should be enough for any school to get behind. Look at the fact that in the Dulles District we are not allowed to field dive teams. How are we supposed to stand on our own two feet in Regional and State competition when we are starting so many points behind?
LCPS HS Coach–100% agree…we don’t have dive teams either and have zero chance of doing well at states unless we have an impressive group of year round kids to get us there. We had 100 kids come out for the team in the fall…100 kids. I cut the team down to 70. There is definently enough interest by the students to support PWC investing in swimming. PWC is currently under title 9 investigation and will likely get some additional funding for unbalanced sports teams but I don’t see much comming in the direction of swimming.