Man, I bet both A&M and Texas coaching staffs must be kicking themselves that they let this guy get out of state...and to a D-2 school none the less. His name is Zach Interrante, he swims at D-2 Henderson State in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. As a freshman, at his conference championships, he went a 47.92 in the 100 fly. No offense to the Henderson coaches, but if a quality D-1 program got their hands on him, he could be a star. Went to HS in Cleburne.


http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=318457097304

The kid can and will be a star at Henderson State, too.

But he won't get much of an education there.

dp

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 2/14/2010 4:05p).]

That is very impressive for a Division 2 swimmer! Wonder why he picked to go there?

Their coach is a hall of famer. 20+ conference championships, 3 national titles, 150+ All Americans, etc...

All this while being a volunteer head coach at the local high school and winning multiple state titles and coaching about 20 All-Staters.

If you're not getting the D-1 interests, it very well might have been a no-brainer. Shoot, he might have had D-1 interest and just liked the place.

Oh, and one his assistants has a hell of a resume as a high school coach in Texas and his other assistant is an Olympian.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 2/15/2010 12:07a).]

D2 schools have some very fast swimmers.

U of Tampa last year had a 52.43 breaststroker, a 1:46 200 IM, a 4:24 500, and a 9:04 1000.

But most of them are not good academic schools at all. So as a parent - I would have great difficulty if my kid chose a D2 school over a quality D3 school if they couldn't make D1.

I know a few of his teammates. They have a halfway decent aviation department. Maybe that's what he's majoring in?

Tampa I can understand. But Arkadelphia? It's amazing that that town can support 2 D-2 colleges.

2011, do you know this coach personally? I've heard from some people that he's fallen off his game somewhat in recent years, although some of those people are former swimmers of his who transferred, so their opinions aren't totally trustable.

"U of Tampa last year had a 52.43 breaststroker, a 1:46 200 IM, a 4:24 500, and a 9:04 1000."

Wasn't their breaststroker a transfer from SMU taking his last year of eligibility in a lower division?

It could be. He was a foreign swimmer. Maybe he couldn't cut it academically at SMU?

I know you can get into Tampa easily with a 1100-1200 SAT. And Henderson is even easier.

You are correct. That was a former SMU swimmer.

i think the smu/tampa guy didnt have any d1 eligibility left but had a year for d2 so jumped ship to keep competing.

Haha... I knew a bunch of people who went to Henderson State to swim. They definitely have an established swimming tradition of mediocre to pretty decent D-I level recruits. On the flipside, everyone I know who went there took a pretty hard nose dive (at least temporarily) in most aspects of life from swimming to academics to career prospects - not to mention the frightening social life of rural central Arkansas. I went to visit friends there one time and promptly decided that I would never go back. That said, everyone seemed to be happy there who went.

I hope the guy likes it there, and maybe he'll catch the eye of Jay and earn us some points next year.

PS - sorry if I was a bit offensive on the post. Like I said, I know many people who were happy at HSU, but it was definitely not the place for me.

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i think the smu/tampa guy didnt have any d1 eligibility left but had a year for d2 so jumped ship to keep competing.

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I'm no NCAA eligibility expert, but how would this happen???

I think you have 4 years at d1 and can take another year in a lower division. not 100% on that though.

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2011, do you know this coach personally? I've heard from some people that he's fallen off his game somewhat in recent years, although some of those people are former swimmers of his who transferred, so their opinions aren't totally trustable.

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No, I do not.

Top 10 or 15 finishes at nationals are still pretty much the norm for his men and women. The men's team is ranked 4th in the nation right now and the women are 3rd.

He just might be "off his game", I don't know, but his new game still seems pretty darn good.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 2/16/2010 12:02a).]

I think his biggest asset is that he's an outstanding recruiter. The few people I know that transferred out said that they worked really hard to make it seem like an awesome town for recruits, and that when they went there they thought it was going to be great.

As an example, they have a diver who broke an 18 year old school record in the 1 meter, and won both the 1 meter and 3 meter at conference as a freshman, and he managed to recruit her WITHOUT A DIVING COACH! That's impressive. Doubt she's going to stick around very long after she goes to nationals and has to ask other teams' coaches to help her warm-up. They're going to be allll over that.

Fairly certain they have a diving coach.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 2/16/2010 10:54a).]

As a parent, my kid would have to beg me to go to Henderson State. One of our high school's swimmers two years ago swam for Henderson. He was not an academic-kind of kid - so Henderson was a reasonable choice for him.

But not for my kids (for academic reasons).

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Fairly certain they have a diving coach.

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Nope. The divers exchange swim lessons to his kids for 2-days a week with the local HS coach, but that's the closest they get. Nobody that goes to meets with them for sure. Know this for a fact. They may have had a coach in the past though, their unofficial team site says they do, but dunno how old that is.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 2/16/2010 12:37p).]

I swam at Henderson State under Coak for one year in 1990. I went to High School in Kingwood and a majority of the swimmers were from the Houston area. As a matter of fact, we had our Holiday Practices at Cy-Fair so that should tell you how much he recruits out of the Houston area. I think we only had one male swimmer that actually went to High School in Arkansas and he lived in Texarkana.

Anyway, I think Coak is a great coach and recruiter and enjoyed my short lived life in Arkadelphia. I can not answer whether or not he has fallen off his game though.

As an update, Interrante didn't drop any time at NCAA's, but still won in 48.00.