A new coach, a clean slate and a new season can do wonders for a team.
LSU’s swimming teams are coming off a less-than-stellar season in which they both went winless in the SEC. But there’s a sense of optimism in the air as the teams head into their annual “Purple vs. Gold” intrasquad meet today.
David Geyer and Doug Shaffer were named co-head coaches in the offseason and senior Kannon Betzen said the move has been great for the team.
“It’s a much more positive atmosphere,” Betzen said. “The way Dave approaches things, it’s more motivating.”
Senior James Meyers said Geyer has emphasized five pillars this season — respect, integrity, community, team and trust.
In addition, Geyer and Shaffer have worked to bring back alumni support as one of their first tasks. The team held an alumni reunion last weekend for the first time since 2005.
“I think it’s a great idea, especially to get the alumni support back,” Betzen said. “In the past once you graduated, it was like, ‘See you later.’ Now that they’re coming back it’s really good to have that support group.”
The alumni and the current team faced off last Saturday in a fun, no pressure meet. No pressure and no integrity, senior Clint Hallum joked.
“They [the alumni] cheated most of the time,” said Hallum.
Meyers said the alumni swimmers would jump before the buzzer would go off.
“I think Dave told them to do that to give us a race,” Meyers said, smiling. “If we were to go head to head with them, no cheating involved, I’m pretty sure those old guys wouldn’t be able to stand a chance.”
Meets like the “Purple vs. Old” and “Purple vs. Gold” are really helpful to the team to get them ready for the season, Betzen said.
“It’s nice to do small meets like that … to get the racing down before you compete against someone,” Betzen said. Especially when we go up against the top SEC schools like Auburn and Florida.”
It also gives the freshman a chance to get used to the pace of a college meet.
“It’s a good opportunity for them to learn the meet order and how fast of a pace the meet is,” Hallum said. “A lot of freshmen don’t realize that coming in here.”
Meyers said the team has been working harder than ever and he’s excited to see how fast everybody can swim.
“I feel like right now there’s a lot more energy on the deck, a lot more coaching involvement,” Meyers said. “We’re tuned into what
they’re saying because they’re so energetic and because the atmosphere is so positive.”
And for Meyers, there’s a little bit riding on this meet. As one of the team captains last season, Meyers was in charge of picking members to be on his team for the intrasquad meet.
They lost badly.
“This year the teams were picked by the coaches so they’re a little more balanced,” Meyers said. “I’d like to reclaim my crown because
last year we lost so badly,” he continued, laughing.