University of Richmond Athletics
A-10 Championship Blog: Monday Edition
02/19/2013 | 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. Each of his championship week blog entries can be found below
Richmond, VA - I should write a paragraph about "how time flies" and place it right here, but I'm not goning to do it. I would be implying that I'm old enough to have witnessed years "flying by." Instead, I'll confess to being young enough & hip enough to listen to Macklemore while packing for this championship meet. [You've heard "Thrift Shop," but you should try "My Oh My." Right, Rick Lear?]
So, I'm enrolled in the MBA program at Richmond. Between practice and class tonight, I had the good fortune of meeting with my professor, Jonathan Whitaker. He is also sophomore Meredith Gouger's professor. As expected, we chatted about assignments, class, projects, and the team. I respect his path to Richmond and I respect his teaching style. More importantly, I know his Richmond students respect him. We talked about the state of Richmond, the future of higher education, and our mutual motivation to make an impact. I found myself in an office in the business school bragging about the swimmers. How did this happen?
This is how it happened: We throw out an option on the Monday before we leave for the meet to "pull the trigger." [Please excuse the insensitive gun analogy.] The "trigger" artificially starts the process of fast swimming; it somehow convinces the body that the meet has begun. We have found in years past that we get better as the meet goes on, so we start the process on Monday instead of Thursday. We push limits today with the hopes we'll be better later in the week. Eight swimmers participated tonight, and they were fast. They were very fast, and I bragged to my professor.
But the process is far from complete. That's why we head to Ohio tomorrow. We still need to have the whole team perform at their highest level. We still need to take care of the details, the race strategies, and each other. We have one week to be very good to each other.
Come along...
Players Mentioned
