University of Richmond Athletics
A-10 Championship Week Blog: Tuesday Edition
02/22/2012 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Editor's Note: Head coach Matt Barany will continue his annual tradition and pen a blog over the duration of this week's A-10 Championship. His first entry can be found below the Championship Central grid.
Tuesday, February 21: A Look Back at the Week AheadIt amazes me to be back at this point in the year again. I know, I know - time accelerates with age. But it's more than just time; it takes a lot of energy from a lot of valuable people to get here.
Some of those valuable people deserve praise, as they are the University of Richmond's Team of Distinction and were honored at last weekend's 2012 Spider Hall of Fame festivities.
We were privileged to have Riley, Gigi, Crossman, Denney, Jessica and Bateman come back to practice and speak with the 2011-2012 team about their 2004-2005 season. These women along with their teammates and coaches that year are great role models for us. You guys dominated!
Yesterday, we had the shortest team meeting of the year, yet it might have been the most productive. We discussed "2010" - our loss. Michelle reminded us of the events of that week and reflected on how we responded in saying, "We bonded together with motivation to take risks." I followed with, "What is our objective this week?"
There are many correct answers, and I didn't know where this question would lead us. I don't think they did either. Jessie braved an answer: "to use our values to win a championship." I was thankful she hit it.
I can argue that the two most important words of this meeting were "bond" from Michelle and "a" from Jessie. That was the message for this team meeting - BOND together to win A championship.
Today was easy. We made it through all of our stops, including Marco's, in time to be back at the hotel by 8:00 p.m. Sadly, there is no snow. Those of you who know me understand how I feel about this.
Our Cast:
Travis Stensby - Asssistant Coach
Erika Matheis - Diving Coach
Zach Burrus - Sports PR guru and Selena Gomez fanatic
Nicole Lovejoy - Sports Medicine
17 Swimmers
1 Diver
Our Competition: La Salle and UMass look very good with their seed times. Fordham is the only other team here that knows how to win a championship, and we respect them. We welcome a hard fought meet; we'd welcome a four-team race for the championship. We're going hard after the relays. We'll start racing tomorrow night, and I can't wait!
Thank you for your support and your energy. We appreciate the extraordinary attention this year, and we are motivated to represent Richmond very well.
