OK, we know what is going on with T&F. What about the swimming coach? What is the news there?

"It takes a man to be a father....."

I hope we go after the coach of the Club team in Austin....brother of current tu coach....former UFlorida HC

Randy Reese is the tu headcoach and the headcoach of Longhorn Aquatics, the club team. His brother, Eddie Reese is an assistant. I don't know if Eddie is headcoach material or not. 44 swimmers from Longhorn Aquatics qualified for the Olympic trials. Several tu swimmers such as Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen are members of other club teams. Note that Peirsol and Hansen have already set three world records at the Trials.

[This message has been edited by SpicewoodAg (edited 7/13/2004 6:42p).]

Looks like Jay Holmes might be coach for a while.

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Let's see...new Track coach...big name guy...new men's assistant tennis coach...no new swimming coach...what could that mean?

How about the end of another varsity sport at A&M. Big Bill is watching that bottom line and swimming is drowning in red ink.

Don't believe me? Just ask every department head in the athletic department why they were told to cut the budget by $60,000 EACH.

Big Bill has spent the farm on coaches and it's costing the deparment dearly. Each of these new, high dollar coaches better get results quick, and I'm talking NC's, not just Big 12 titles.

[This message has been edited by Sherlock (edited 7/13/2004 9:59p).]

[This message has been edited by Sherlock (edited 7/13/2004 10:00p).]

Sherlock:
Want some wine, buddy?

Without being redundant, we all know football produces the $$$ for everybody else.

Byrne is puitting his people in place, and the message is out: win games! You win games, attendance goes up, $$$ go up, everything goes up, and we get what we want: a program that beats tu consistently.

That is the bottom line, don't 'ya think??

"It takes a man to be a father....."

Byrne won't drop men's swimming... We've had high finishes for the past so many years and we have great facilities. I mean, we've hosted NCAAs more than once if I'm not mistaken.

It looks to me like the choice to hire the assistant coach is to buy time actually. The article at AggieSports says that he has a year to prove himself. To me, that sounds like "you've got a year at this job while I convince somebody else to come here unless you do really really well."

But the swimming program will not be dropped.

Holmes may be a good guy. But if you were a swimming hotshot - why would you come to swim for a coach on a one year trial period? I think Byrne just stalled the program for at least one year. Holmes has apparently no national reputation. We have no men's swimming assistant coaches with out of state connections who can recruit. None of the three tu swimmers who set world records at the Olympic trials this week are from Texas. Crocker is from Maine, Peirsol is from Calif. and Hansen is from Penn. We have to recruit nationally.

This is a major disappointment coming from a guy already with a black eye in the swimming world.

Good call Spicewood! You and Sherlock seem to get it. All of Byrne's previous hires have been big name people with a national reputation, previous head coaching experience and proven leaders in recruiting, winning and building a program. Holmes has been a long-time assistant with no national presence. This hire is a money issue, plain and simple. Bill is letting it go one more year, and after that, who knows where men's swimming will be.



[This message has been edited by Blacque Jacque Shallaque (edited 7/14/2004 4:54p).]

Byrne will be going for a top-flight, big-name coach for the swim team.

This info is from a GA for the swim team. Track & field is a non-revenue sport, and given the size of the Aggie coffers we were able to give Henry a $50K raise over LSU. Look for A&M to do the same with its swim program. Byrne is gunning for championships swimming against t.u. means going for national titles. The reasons he dropped swimming at Nebraska are much deeper than just dollars and cents.

Mark my words, Byrne will not drop swimming.



You know me, gotta roam. Gotta bird-dog. Gotta cross females and fences, and if you'd all just come along you'd see...

Law - I hope you're right. But this move with swimming will do damage to the program over the next year. Unlike EVERY OTHER coaching move Byrne has made so far - this one is hard to defend. I agree with removing Nash. I just don't like who he replaced him with. Swimming is undeniably expensive because of the pool - but it carries prestige and is an Olympic sport.

The new swimming coach isn't new at all, and maybe that isn't bad. Maybe.

On the other hand, he has one year to prove himself. That is bad.

The new track coach gets $50000 more per year to come to TAMU. Where does that $50000 come from? The $50000 is the difference you would pay an experienced swim coach vs. what you will pay a former assistant coach who is happy to get the position.

And I thought Drayton McLane owned the Astros; I didn't know he was our new AD.

"It takes a man to be a father....."

The track coach is getting $50K more than he was paid at LSU. He is getting about $155K more than our previous track coach. That might be Nash's salary, replacing him with a cheaper guy (Holmes), and replacing Holmes with a cheaper swimming assistant coach.

The track coach hire was a bold move. The swimming coach move was a yawn.

We either need to support swimming or close it...Byrne's rep of closing swimming programs is all over the Club circuit and that is why we have signed one swimmer the last two years...now we give as assistant the job and release it to the press that we have given him one year....now which parent will send his kid to A&M with that security?

We either need to support swimming or close it...Byrne's rep of closing swimming programs is all over the Club circuit and that is why we have signed one swimmer the last two years...now we give as assistant the job and release it to the press that we have given him one year....now which parent will send his kid to A&M with that security?

Unfortunately, I think Cat asks a very good question. I'm not going to assume anything or even speculate. But I do think it may be time to ask specifically what the plans are for the swimming program.

Byrne said to a Sport Management Society meeting that he shut down the swimming program because they discovered extreme amounts of NCAA infractions. They shut down the program before the NCAA discovered the infractions.

I still don't think he'll shut down the swimming program. Look at our darn facilities, that's enough right there. We've hosted the NCAAs more than once, we've been a top 15 team lately and if he finds his man, we'll be even higher.

I still believe that this one year thing is just so he can bide his time until he finds the coach he really wants. I'm looking to the coach at Auburn. We've already got coaches from other SEC schools (LSU, Arkansas, Alabama), why not add to the list? And Auburn has been a wonderful team lately.

Does anyone remember longtime Aggie swimming coach, Art Adamson? A friend of mine and I were recalling what a tough coach he was and tried to come up with his tenure as swim coach. He was there in the 60's and possibly into the 70's.

And the 40s!

So... sorry to drag up such an old topic, but a new development is...
www.formeraggieswimmers.com
these old posts are right about one thing though, recruiting has been hurting us, and with byrne making the statement at coach g's press conference that we "will give jay one year" there is NO WAY to recruit like that.
byrne needs to get on the ball and do some interviews proclaiming they are keeping swimming, he is the only one people will believe.

Just some info -

Randy Reese is the club coach in Austin.

Eddie Reese is the head coach at tu that has produced so many olympians and served on numerous national teams.

Nash was fired because he didn't beat Texas. There have been only a handful of teams that have beaten Texas in the past 15 years.

There is no (reasonable) amount of money that would pull coaches away from Auburn, Stanford, or Georgia - the only teams with coaches that have ever beaten Texas on the national level who MIGHT be able to make a big effect on recruiting.

Whoever said Byrne is taking a break on the swimming program was right.

He took advantage of Mel, Jay, and the entire roster - and has all but ignored the team for the past few years. But why?

Men's Swimming and Diving has consistantly been one of, if not the highest ranked men's sports at the school, scored the most points for the Sears Cup, had the highest GPA, and had the highest graduation rate.

There is more to coaching than just winning, despite what Bill might think.

AD

[Disrespectful name edited out. Staff]




[This message has been edited by TexAgs staff (edited 9/20/2004 9:16p).]