Coaches Corner for September 21st: Chris Mann, Boone Girls Swimming

with us on Coaches Corner, KWBG. Gonna talk some boom girl swimming today. Chris Mayen joining us, the Torridors. Actually kind of a busy week last week, Chris, when you look at things that kind of went down, and I know there was also some out of pool stuff that kind of kept some of our swimmers busy. Kind of a rough week, but yet a pretty good week for you. Yeah, yeah, you get to this time of the year and kids always have a lot of stuff going on, whether it's, you know, you got four different teams and four different homecoming weeks. So, you know, that keeps us busy, but also, you know, we had our swim against cancer night on Thursday night, and that was a lot of fun, but a lot of effort put in there and swimming two meets on Thursday, Saturday is also, is also busy. So along with the regular schedule and school and all that stuff, but yeah, it was a successful week and we're looking forward to, we had a couple weeks here where we have some good gaps in between, in between some of our meets, so given some good training. All right, so I'll ask what coach wants and then I'll ask what kids want. Do you like the breaks? What do the kids say and what does coach say? Well, I mean, we all know we've got work to do and it's, meets are good stepping stones, but practice is where the bulk of anyone's work is gonna come from. So not that they like a lot of practice, but they do like the results and how they feel after a good week of practice and putting in some work and uninterrupted work, I should say. And so yeah, I'm sure that they like the meets in between and being able to compete against other people, but we gotta have some time to just get in the water and get better on our own as well. Well, we kind of started things off with the Des Moines meets and just a dominant night and I think kind of going in, you were looking for more times and you kind of figure the results would get there, but coach, I saw a lot of good stuff that night. It was, we have some meets, it's a good chance to throw some girls in some different events and I like when they come up and they're like, you know, I haven't swam this event in three years. You know, we're all, you get up on the block and you just need to know how to compete. It doesn't matter what you race in, it doesn't matter the event, doesn't matter how long it is. We just need to see you competitive and you need to develop that inner drive to just be as good as you can be. And those off events give them the chance to do that because when you haven't swam an event in a while, it's a little easier to go at best time. You know, you've had a couple years of growth or even from last season to this season of growth and haven't swam that event and shuffle up some relays as well to make things a little interesting. I think our last relay came down to our two twins racing and then that being like a tenth of a second apart. So we developed some good little interest squad races and abilities to do that. So, but yeah, a lot of fun that night and got a lot of good best times out of it. Had the girls feeling pretty excited, especially at a home meet, so it was a lot of fun. Was that a little surprising for you, coach, on a Thursday night to see as many kind of some personal bests that you were able to see? Yeah, I think home meets bring a lot more energy. And like I was saying, when we shuffle some girls around, those best times come a little bit easier than swim in the same event, meet after meet and trying to lower those times that maybe you've swam at a regional or state meet before. But yeah, I think anytime you can do that at home is a lot of fun. Well, then you went up against, I mean, Johnston, we know always has a pretty solid squad. I always kind of feel like Marshalltown is pretty good as well. So a second place finish, like the girls were able to pull on Saturday at Marshalltown. Overall, maybe not the personal best, season bests, PRs and everything else that we want to see, but still, I mean, boy, second to Johnston never feels terrible. Yeah, I mean, you go against those big schools. And I think outside of Johnston, all the rest of the schools that were there with Grinnell, Marshalltown, Atomua and Atlantic are all very similar in size and in their years. You know, we all have our up years and our down years. So a very competitive meet year after year. But one stat that I didn't tell you was that in the last four years, we've gone out of 16s. We've gone fifth place, fourth place, third place, second place. So just improving year after year and just kind of on that upward trend is something that's nice to look at. No, you left that one out, Chris. I always love when you say have a nugget for the interview part, but that's outstanding. And there's, like you said, some similar squads there. Overall, I know you said the curls were a little pooped. It was a little bit of a long week. When they walk out of the pool that afternoon, once you guys get done, are they ready for that next week or are they ready for a little break? I think mostly mentally they're just ready for a little break. I think it's really hard to compete on a Thursday night and then get up again on Saturday morning and compete again. You know, it's just, we have a Friday practice. It's kind of a connector. You can't really, you got a kind of, a little bit of recovery from the meet on the Thursday night and a little bit of prep for the meet on Saturday. There's not really a whole lot of work that can be done. Just trying to connect the two. And so just mentally they're ready for their brain to reset. And then this week, you know, we have all week until we have a meet on Saturday. So we'll be able to get through our normal flow and our normal progression of the week. And that sets up with a pretty low key practice on Monday is just getting back in the swing of things from the weekend. I think they'll really appreciate the mental reset that they had from getting out of the pool Saturday till this afternoon. Oh, I bet they will. A couple of girls I wanted to talk about Chris before we let you go this week. Quinn Halston was one who I wanted to talk about. I just kind of feel like I see her into that, into that spot where you want her to be swimming wise right now, right? You don't want to peek. You want to see those times continue to drop and continue to just get faster. And it kind of feels like Quinn these last couple of weeks is really finding her way to the top of a lot of pages. And I feel like I'm reading her name a lot here lately too. Yeah, I, you know, one thing about Quinn is she puts in, she works really, really hard. Not that a lot of our girls don't. But she put in some work in the off season, swimming over in Ames, you know, swimming in our summer program that have really paid off and in ways that we didn't really expect, I think, coming into the season. Last year she was crucial on a couple of our state relays and helping that and just missed state in her open 100 free as a freshman. So we knew there were a lot of capabilities there. But when a girl comes in and she's grown two or three inches since last season and she's put in the work that she has, you know, she's gonna be able to do some special things. And we see that with a lot of our sophomores, the growth from freshmen to sophomores, probably the biggest jump that we have. And for her to switch into some more distance-ish, mid-distance type swimming, the 200s and 500s, I think she really has a knack for that. And I think that the off season training really paid off for her in that regards. And so to see what she'll be able to do, you know, in one week she just dropped a ton of time just in those two events and kind of put herself into that, hey, you could be a state qualifier in these type of events. So just really exciting things ahead for her, I think as we go through the season. Somebody else who I kind of feel like might be on that same trajectory. What about Ellie Hughes, coach? I feel like there's another one who I've been reading quite a lot. And just when I get through results and I see Hughes, Hughes, Hughes, I mean, I'm seeing individuals, I'm seeing a bunch of relays as well. She kind of feels like she's on that same path. Yeah, and Ellie's another one with a vast wealth of swimming experience and whether it be club swimming or, you know, she was a state qualifier in the Hunter Breaststroke last year. And so she has that experience and we see these girls that come back from state the next year just with that extra level of confidence that we've talked about before and as a junior to also have plenty of high school swimming experience under her belt. And so she has progressed a lot this year already and to see where she'll go throughout the season is going to be pretty special. And she's got some high goals and lofty goals and is already starting to establish herself as someone who can achieve those goals during the season doesn't have to wait till it gets to November before we achieve those goals. And, you know, we're able to recalibrate those along the way. And yeah, just been a lot of fun to get to coach her and see her progression and how she attacks those things. Chris, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck this week. We'll talk to you again here in a couple of weeks. Yeah, thanks, Ryan. You bet, Chris Bandigan joining us. Boom Girl's swimming here in coach's corner.