In many cases, experience matters, but how you deal with pressure to gain experience can prove to be even more valuable.
The University of Tampa swimming team is loaded with young talent this season, and with 25 underclassmen entering the squad, the team sets the goal of a conference championship and much more.
As the 2011 season is set to start in mid-October, UT swimming welcomes the largest freshman class they have ever brought into the university. With a total of 32 transfers and freshman, this year will bring many challenges.
One swimmer who may lead the underclassmen into the right direction is freshman sprinter, Erin Plachy.
From Magnolia High School in Magnolia, Tx., Plachy joins the UT swimming team as one of the fastest sprinters that the university has ever seen as a freshman.
Plachy swims the 50 and 100 yard freestyles, and the 50 is her personal favorite—in high school, she set the school’s all-time record at 24.52 seconds.
With Plachy continuing to get her feet wet in Tampa and the UT swim team, she is happy with how everything has went so far.
“I really like it here,” Plachy said. “It’s great how we all swim together and we do a lot of things as a team rather than individually.”
As Plachy is one of the 60-plus swimmers on the squad, the 2011 season will also be a season of valuable transfers that have came to UT to help the team reach the promise land.
Sophomore Katie Parker, a transfer from St. Bonaventure, leads the women transfer class and is expected to have a big impact this season.
Parker’s best race is the 200 fly, and she will be swimming the butterfly in UT’s first meet. In 2010, Parker was on the national team for St. Bonaventure. The native from Boca Raton, Fla., is looking for a successful year from not only herself, but the swimming team as a whole.
“I wasn’t here last year, but I hope we do even better than last season,” Parker said. “I believe making progress is always a good thing, and I’m really looking forward to the start of the season.”
UT’s head swim coach, Ed Brennan, is ready for the season to start. With such a large roster this year, he stated that the team has been very busy preparing for the season.
With the 60-plus swimmers, the coaches have to offer two afternoon and evening training sessions in addition to their Monday to Friday 6:30 a.m. practice sessions.
Coach Brennan also knows he will have a difficult time picking the 18 men and 18 women lineup for championship competition.
“It will put a lot of pressure on the returning swimmers and on our staff to select the top 18,” he said. “We’re bound to make some mistakes and disappoint a significant number of our athletes.”
With that, Brennan believes that swimming is not a sport where there is a lot of luck involved in the outcome, but key injuries can cause any of the conference teams to fall a place in the final standings.
With challenges facing the squad, Norbert Kovacs is ready to take some of the load off the men’s swimming squad’s shoulders.
Kovacs, who in Brennan’s eyes will be a major contributor on the men’s side, brings an effective and efficient 200 fly and 200 freestyle to the table. Kovacs believes the 200 fly is his best race and has high goals for him and the team this upcoming season.
“I’m shooting for the Division II fly record so I hope I can achieve that,” Kovacs said. “Although I have personal goals, it is most important to me that I can help the men’s team win a conference championship first and foremost.”
The men finished in second in the Sunshine State Conference in 2010, and this year they are hoping they can improve that to a first place showing.
According to Kovacs ,the team is heading in the right direction due to its chemistry among the swimmers.
“We have a great environment as a team and we look forward to swimming and coming to practice every day, which in my mind is very important,” he said.
With the season opener approaching, it seems like a first place conference finish for both the men and the women’s swim teams is the ultimate goal for not only the swimmers, but coach Brennan.
“If we can defend our conference championship on the women’s side and come back from our disappointing second place finish with our men, we will set ourselves up for our highest national finish in 10 years,” Brennan said.
“It’s a very long season and job one now is to get ready for our opening meet at Florida Southern Oct. 15.”
Michael Paonessa can be reached at mpaonessa@spartans.ut.edu.