The only two recruits I know something about are Riley and Shaw. They are going to be something big. Both kids have tremendous room for body growth. Holmes will take care of that.

Riley can fill in a lot of spots with his freestyle speed, including the 200. That 1:40 is an old time, he's probably about a 1:38 right now. Shaw's 200 will do nothing but get better. Same for his 50 and 100. Both kids are intense competitors.

Also, don't forget Riley turned down Texas and Missouri. Shaw switched from Virginia to A&M. I think Holmes brought in a real good group of kids. I anticipate A&M moving into the top 10 this season.

I was wondering why I hadn't seen Shaw before since Alamo Heights is in my high school region. Our HS usually is fighting with AAHS and Boerne for the regional championship. Shaw was a Churchill kid in 2009 and apparently didn't compete in high school in 2010. He moved across town to Alamo Heights and swam for them in 2010-2011.

+1 for aggieswimfan

All because the Aggies should beat them doesn't necessarily mean that they do. Mizzou beat A&M 09 Big XII or does that year not count?

Will be interesting to see the Freshman battle for spots on that 800Free relay

quote:

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All because the Aggies should beat them doesn't necessarily mean that they do.

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LOL WUT?

dunno if y'all on here are former swimmers or what, but I've been lurking, and some of y'all are seriously sippin some kool-aid.
You think youre entitled to 2nd in the Big 12...just cause of what? Someone pointed out the Mizzou stomped y'all in recruiting last year...times are changing. The coaches don't get to just say 'were A&M, you should beg us to swim here'. 14th-ranked programs dont have that luxury. how do you see this program moving into the top 10? on whose points? freshman dont score like that in the ncaa.
Cant wait until y'all move to the SEC and realize that youre not entitled to a spot just because 'your swimmers work hard and therefore will be 2nd in the conference and top 10 ever year.' gimme a break. Mizzou swimmers work hard too and have a very good coach who turned out a top 10 class.
I think jays intimidated by bringing in top recruits that he cant do anything with him. He might be the one with too much ego, not the recruits. Hed rather prove that he can make something out of nothing than give any credit to the club or hs coaches who made these kids really good to begin with.

I think A&M was entitled to 2nd in the Big 12 because they got 2nd in the Big 12 year in and year out, and just curious.. the one year Mizzou beat A&M at Big 12's... how many guys from Mizzou went to NCAA's?...0. I think that was the argument here was that A&M could do a better job at recruiting. Also you're totally right, a coach that has been in the top 15 every year is shaking in his boots that a high profile swimmer might do well. Give me a break.

P.S. as a Mizzou fan.. if recent news is true you may have wanted to make your ID secswimfan

I have already said that I think the SEC move should be good for A&M swimming. But Jay and company better not wait for kids to come calling. We have never had a men's team good enough to use the "we're texas" attitude that Texas can use. They have Eddie Reese, a bunch of NC banners hanging from the wall.

Outside of Texas UT has a better academic rating as per US News.

Recruiting is hard work. That's how Mack Brown brought teasip football back from the dead. He killed RC Slocum who was slow to change his ways recruiting. I know I haven't witnessed most of swimming recruiting first hand but what I read here suggests that Missouri (for example) puts more energy into it (at least for US based recruits).

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 9/21/2011 12:43p).]

favre, what I was trying to say is that anything is be possible, especially with the recruits that mizzou landed this year.

With all the comments, it'll be an interesting Big XII's this year. I predict the Ags to beat mizzou but its not going to be easy

Completely agree with you Spice. Recruiting is hard work and it looks like recently Missouri has done a great job of it. But seriously noone ACTUALLY thinks that, other than the two programs being in the same conference, they are comparable.

^^^favre, why are they not comparable? They have a phenomenal facility, and a coach with a proven track record as the top assistant at Arizona. And they're luring great divers.

Doesn't seem to be isolated either. He did wonders with that Canadian backstroker on the women's side, and earned a transfer from Florida's best sprinter. The only thing that they don't have is the recent success - but a good coach and a good facility can make a huge difference. Doesn't take a whole lot of classes like the one Missouri brought in to become a powerhouse.

I'd guess that Missouri is on its way to being a perrenial top-15 team as well, on both sides. In fact, I'd say that Missouri is becoming very comparable to our program, in more ways than one. Emphasis on diving, foreign recruits, head coach who was a long-time top assistant...a whole lot of similarities there.

Normally, I'd agree with you, if it weren't for the coaching change. Programs don't all of a sudden just start pulling in good recruits if they've been mediocre for a long time, but coaches can. See the turnarounds at places like Minnesota.

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 9/21/2011 2:18p).]

Any athletic program can change its fortunes in just a few years. If the men added swimmers like Julia Wilkinson and Breeja Larson, how many points does that add? A bunch. A finals at NCAAs and suddenly medley relays move from B to A finals. Instead of top 15 you are top 10. Top 5 takes some big time freestyle depth.

Keyword is on their way. I just don't think they are right now. Like that guy on the Missouri team up there said, "times are changing ". In 5 years its very possible all we have on them is the ability to say history. But the same thing was being said with their old coach. The thing with out-recruiting is that its just recruiting.

Different sport I know and recruiting is completely different from sport to sport, but if we crowned champions off of recruiting, Notre Dame and Texas would be playing every single year in the BCS national championship game. A swimmming example would be not to long ago Indiana was "recruiting out of their mind"... take a look at their NCAA finishes the last 4 years.

Maybe I'm wrong. Noone has even swam a meet this year, but thats the fun in message boards.

I'll give it to you that it's an 'on their way' thing. Definitely aren't there yet. I give them a good chance with Rhodenbaugh at the helm, but he still has to actually do it. Whoever's there must be on a short leash. They didn't build that huge facility to toil outside of the top 20 for very long.

I almost hope they don't follow us to the SEC, because I kind of like the way they're building that program, and I'd like to be able to root for them a bit on the side. [/guiltyPleasure]

[This message has been edited by AGBlastoff (edited 9/21/2011 3:06p).]

http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/swim-talk-with-texas-am-captain-amini-fonua/

Team member Amini Fonua gave a great interview on Swimmers circle. Gives a little bit of insight into the team :-)

http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/swim-talk-with-texas-am-captain-amini-fonua/


FIFY

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 9/22/2011 4:23p).]

Favre - you're right. A team becomes great with a combination of great athletes and great development (coaching).

Mack Brown's success shows that lights out recruiting can take you very far.

Kim Brackin has shown she is a great recruiter. But she has not proven she is a great coach.

Great recruiting by the way doesn't always mean getting the 5 or 6 star (swimming ranking system) athletes. It could mean recognizing the talent of someone like Breeja or Julia (who was fast but not super-fast coming in to A&M). Some of the 5-6 stars out there are close to done with their careers because they are close to their physical peak (Maverick Smalley probably hit his peak when he was 16). For example I think there are signs that Gray Umbach may be peaking. His rate of improvement has slowed and he no longer dominates his races.

It sure makes a coach's job easier though if your freshmen swim 20.5/44/137 in free or 47 back/fly.

"dunno if y'all on here are former swimmers or what, but I've been lurking, and some of y'all are seriously sippin some kool-aid.
You think youre entitled to 2nd in the Big 12...just cause of what? Someone pointed out the Mizzou stomped y'all in recruiting last year...times are changing. The coaches don't get to just say 'were A&M, you should beg us to swim here'. 14th-ranked programs dont have that luxury. how do you see this program moving into the top 10? on whose points? freshman dont score like that in the ncaa.
Cant wait until y'all move to the SEC and realize that youre not entitled to a spot just because 'your swimmers work hard and therefore will be 2nd in the conference and top 10 ever year.' gimme a break. Mizzou swimmers work hard too and have a very good coach who turned out a top 10 class.
I think jays intimidated by bringing in top recruits that he cant do anything with him. He might be the one with too much ego, not the recruits. Hed rather prove that he can make something out of nothing than give any credit to the club or hs coaches who made these kids really good to begin with."



[This message has been edited by TheSituation80 (edited 9/25/2011 8:18p).]

@Big12SwimFan - I don't think anyone believes we're entitled to 2nd in conference due to our name. This whole post is discussing how the coaches are recruiting, and if you read it all you would see that everyone has differing opinions on how they should be doing that.

There is almost no one on here saying that Jay is 100% perfect at recruiting or that we 'deserve' recruits, we're just trying to figure out what's going on, why, and how it could possibly be better.

If you follow these threads, we've also discussed how we think the teams would do in the SEC, and I specifically brought up in this thread how that move would require a change in recruiting for us.

I also have yet to see a college coach with a great swimmer say, "Yeah, he wins a lot and after a full year of practice with us, it's really all thanks to his club team."

[This message has been edited by Aquabullet (edited 9/25/2011 9:28p).]

@AB

I was quoting someone above. You and I are in agreement.

@Situation - hahaha, sorry I meant to put big12swimfan but was writing straight after reading your post and had that on my mind! human error, sorry 'bout that....

Guess that's my own "double face palm"....

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He [Jay Holmes] might be the one with too much ego

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LOL @ this!

Have you ever even met Jay Holmes?! If so, you clearly know him much better than I do...

I second BigPapa's statement. If there's one thing Jay doesn't have, it's ego...and thank god. There's certainly enough coaches around this place with overinflated ones. Jay is a breath of fresh air in this regard.

Big recruiting weekend.

Steve had at least 5 girls visiting. Lerew had at least 3. Jay had 1?

Great to hear from you again BigPapaB!

Thanks for the insider info agswimfan, (looch doesn't offer swimming recruiting info yet. Keep thinking he will but just hasn't happened.) But honestly for all we know that one recruit was the next Michael Phelps and Jay brought in 50 recruits last week and they all committed.

@Agswimmfan - I think those numbers might be a little backward, I'll ask around but I *think* there were 3 male swimmers this weekend. (I was under the impression that there were male divers last weekend, but no idea how many, or if that's even true...)
As for the girls, I'm not at all sure.

Honestly, I might have my weekends backwards, I just thought Jay had already had 3/4 visit so far.
Lerew has definitely had a couple.

[This message has been edited by Aquabullet (edited 9/26/2011 5:13p).]

[This message has been edited by Aquabullet (edited 9/26/2011 5:14p).]

Jay Holmes actually had 3 recruits last weekend.