JHM Journalism Foundation » The Johnnies » 2008 Winners » Sports
2008 Winners - Sports (1st place)
Expecting nothing less than success
By Boris Korby
Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)
It’s 5:30 am on a Monday morning and a half-awake Darryl Rudolf is at the pool, about to get in a quick two-hour practice before hurrying to class.
He’s not alone. The entire men’s and women’s varsity swim teamÑ 29 of them in totalÑare there, just as they’ve been almost every day for the last six months, preparing for what for many of them is the most important swim meet they will ever be a part of.
-
No team in the history of university sports has ever had the success UBC’s swim program has enjoyed in the last decade: Nine straight men’s CIS championships. Nine straight women’s CIS championships. Countless CIS, Canadian and even world records.
Over the last nine years, two distinct generations of university swimmers have come together to produce one of the greatest sporting accomplishments in Canada, ever. But along with all the success comes an unprecedented amount of pressure and expectation on the team chosen to complete the story, to bring home number ten.
After all, there is the tradition to continue, the legacy to uphold, as well as a throng of family, friends and alumni to make proud. And even though many of them have been through it before, they’ll all tell you this year is different.
-
To many, after almost a decade of dominance, a tenth win seems almost a given.
It isn’t.
ÒI have friends come up to me and they’re like, Ôbut you always win,’Ó says women’s team captain Michelle Landry. ÒWe try to tell people it’s not really like that. It’s not e a s y diving in and swimming the races we swim. It’s never easy and this year it’s going to be more of a challenge than in other years.Ó
For every member of the team, winning has meant 5:30am practices Monday to Friday, 25 hours total in the pool every week, plus five to ten hours of dry-land. It’s meant sacrificing almost everything the average university student takes for granted.
No keggers, no birthday binges, no Friday nights at the club or bar.
No spontaneous road trips.
No weekends at Whistler.
No Wednesdays at the Pit.
While other students have social lives, they have swimming, and each other.
Team members not only go out together for official functions, but can also be found together when it’s time to relax.
They go bowling, or watch movies, or play poker. They have each other’s backs; they keep each other on track. They give each other rides to the pool at 5:00am, and back home at 7:00pm. Most importantly, they motivate each other to keep swimming. ÒIt is a tough sport,Ó says Landry.
ÒIt’s hard to wake up in the morning, to go ten times a week in the pool, but being part of a team atmosphere, and having a bunch of friends on a team who are there for you and will always be there for you in life has a lot to do with why we’re here.Ó
ÒWe’re doing what we love to do. Everyone is getting along and having a good time and after five years, I’ve realised that that’s the most important part, and that’s why we’ve always come out on top. We just go out there and we have a good time together, and we support each other.Ó
Beyond the medals and trophies, the banners and the records, there’s a level of commitment for what they do and who they do it for; a sense of pride that rivals any in the country. It is the reason they’ve achieved so much already.
-
The banner was up in the Aquatic Centre almost two weeks before the meet was even set to begin. ÓTen years of swimming excellenceÓ it reads, in big bold letters. Beneath, the name of every champion of the past nine years, glaring down at them, reminding them of their duty.
Next to those names are their own. TheyÑall 29 of themÑrepresent the final installment of a story ten years in the making. They are the ones everyone expects to win, and the ones who can’t lose because-despite everything else they might accomplish in the pool at UBC-they will be remembered for this meet.
Even before their first lap in the UBC pool, every thunderbird swimmer knows of the legacy that they will be expected to continue.
ÒWhen I came onÉright away it definitely felt [like] there was something special with this team,Ó says Rudolf, now captain of the men’s team and in his fifth year. ÒEvery year now we put it into the rookies and second-years that we want to get five more titles. Every year it’s: ÔOkay, you’re our number nine, you want to get to 13, that’s your goal.’ I definitely knew when I came to this team that there was this legacy and this tradition of winning, and now you try and instill it in everyone who comes in.Ó
On top of their own expectations are those of their parents, more than half of whom will be flying out to Halifax this year to cheer the team on and be there for the big moment. Past swimmers, too, virtually all of whom have their name up on that banner and many of whom still train at UBC, have been checking in on the team this year, wishing them luck, giving them advice, and subtly reminding them just how many people are counting on them.
ÒWhen the athletes go and they race, they know they’re not just racing for themselves, they know they’re not just racing for this year’s team, they know they are racing for all those swimmers that are up on that banner from the past nine years as well,Ó says Derrick Schoof, the man whoÑin his first year as head coach of the UBC swim teamÑis responsible for making sure that banner won’t need to be taken down.
ÒThey’re there,Ó says Landry, referring to the swimmers whose contributions are already hanging from the ceiling. ÒThey look over at us, they help us out, and they push us along the way.Ó For Rudolf, Landry and the other senior swimmers on the team, they know their contribution to the legacy will be defined by what is accomplished in the coming weeks.
ÒJust because it’s number ten, because it’s double digits, there is this huge significance,Ó says Rudolf. ÒBut this is what the whole year we’ve been getting ready for.Ó
-
Current head coach Derrick Schoof knew what he was getting himself into from the start.
For five years he’d been an assistant coach at UBC. But to those on the inside, he was the driving force behind the program, the man who was there for each and every swimmer in the pool when they needed him.
ÒHe’s always been there for a lot of these guys,Ó says Rudolf. ÒIt’s been a really easy transition for a lot of the guys on the team because we’ve always thought of him as the head coach.Ó But it was never really his team. Not until now. ÒThis is his first real opportunity and real point of being measured, and how he deals with thisÑwin or loseÑis going to be the measure of him,Ó says Tom Johnson, Schoof’s predecessor and the current head coach of the Vancouver-based National Training Centre.
Now, everybody is looking to him to continue the legacy left behind by Johnson, a 12-time CIS Coach of the Year, seven-time Olympic team coach, eight-time World Championships and Commonwealth Games team coach, and a man Schoof believes is Òone of the best, if not the best in the world.Ó
It’d be a tough act to follow at any time, but now, with championship number ten looming, the expectations are astronomical.
Anyone else in his shoes might well be overwhelmed by all the pressure, but Schoof is taking everything in stride. ÒIs there more pressure? There is, yes. I try not to let anyone [on the team] know that there’s more, but I’ve always felt a bit of pressure to win and that’s something that keeps me going and that I thrive in.Ó
ÒI think what I try to do is not show that I’m feeling it. I’m going to show [the swimmers] that I’m confident, and I’m going to instill a belief in them that we’re going to win.Ó
His confidence is reflected in his coaching style, which is more laidback than his predecessor’s.
ÒI try to have as much fun as I can while still getting the job done,Ó he says. ÒIt’s too hard to ask these guys to come in and do something that’s not fun. It’s 25 hours a week. If it was five hours they might be able to grin and bear it, but you don’t get up at five in the morning and go and do something you don’t like to do.Ó But for all the fun, he also knows that the success of this team, this year, is now squarely on him for the first time, something that he doesn’t take lightly.
ÒI’ve been here a long time, but when you’re the assistant it’s a little different,Ó says Schoof. ÒThe biggest changeÉis not more work or less work, it’s the responsibility and knowing that at the end of the day if we perform, the accolades will go to me, or else if we don’t I’ll be the one responsible.Ó
-
17 years ago Tom Johnson took over UBC swimming and vowed to change the culture and mindset of a program that had seen limited success in it’s first 70 years of competition. In the late 90sÑas the achievements began to accumulateÑthe goals of the program underwent a similar transformation. Success at the CIS level was no longer the ultimate goal. It had evolved to simply Òbeing the best.Ó Johnson’s mentality wasn’t understood by most within the Athletic department until shortly after fifth-year swimmer Brian Johns broke the world record in the 400m individual medley in 2003. Being the best, by Johnson’s standards, meant not placing any limits on the swimmers, or the team.
Though no longer the head coach, Johnson says he remains heavily invested in his old team and students, both on a professional and personal level.
ÒIt’s different for me now. I’m going to the meet, and I’m going to watch the competition but it’s not my team. I’m still very much interested to see what goes on, but it’s just different.Ó Now with new priorities, he still believes the best is yet to come from the UBC swim program.
ÒI miss that part of it a little bit, but I’m also very interested in the challenge of seeing if we can get these kids on the podium in Beijing and London. It’s a different part of my life, and life goes on.Ó But the mentality he forged in his 16 years guiding the program remains.
Only now it’s a new group of swimmers, and a new coach’s turn to keep the legacy alive.
The CIS Swimming Championships run February 22-24 at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
