Two members of the men’s swimming team were picked up by the Coast Guard over Winter Term.
No, this didn’t happen in Carr Pool. Nor in the reservoir, nor in Lake Erie, none of which fall under the Coast Guard’s jurisdiction, anyway.
It happened off the coast of sunny Clearwater Beach, Florida.
For a week, at least, the Oberlin College men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams managed to escape both the frigid air and the pressure and distractions that many of them associate with Oberlin, Ohio. From Jan. 3 to Jan. 10, several members of both teams made their annual trip to Clearwater Beach to practice in a remote but sunny environment that head coach Dick Michaels likens to a “training camp in football.”
“When we go, we’re all in one place, at one time, with only one purpose — to train. We get more done,” Michaels said.
“It’s easier without classes,” sophomore Kim Davis said. “We can recover more. Also, a lot of us feel we’re not in good complete shape until after Florida.”
The trip, which team members pay for themselves, was the brainchild of former swimmer and four-time All-American Mike Heithaus (OC ’95). “When I was recruiting Mike in high school he asked, ‘Where do you go in Florida?’ so I said, ‘Where do you want to go?’” Michaels said.
For the past 11 seasons since Heithaus’s first year, the swimming and diving teams have traveled to Clearwater Beach at the beginning of Winter Term for what sophomore Gabriel Golden refers to as the “time for all of us to get our butts kicked.”
The swimmers train at the Long Center, a recreational sports facility in the area that has the benefit of a long-course (50-meter) pool as opposed to the 25-yard Carr Pool in Oberlin.
“A 50-meter pool is harder than a 25-yard pool because there are fewer flip-turns,” first-year Yorgos Strangas said. “In a 25-yard pool, you get to push off every 25 yards. In a 50-meter pool, you lose that advantage.”
Two intense two-hour practices in a longer pool, adding up to what Golden approximates as “11,000 to 12,000 meters a day” — no wonder Michaels describes it as “kind of like hell week.”
According to Davis, however, all of this is easier to take because “the facility is a whole lot nicer.”
“There are three walls of windows so the hot outdoor sun shines through,” she said. “There are no windows at Carr Pool. There’s also a small warm pool for us to recover in after workouts.”
Also, the teams practice in the morning and evening, leaving the afternoon for the swimmers to reap the benefits of a warmer climate.
“Our hotel was right on the beach, so in the middle of the day, we would play volleyball, swim, and hang out on the beach,” senior Kate McGlone said.
However, this leisure time didn’t pass without incident. “One of my teammates and I were picked up by the Coast Guard,” Golden said.
“We were swimming in the channel that led to the Gulf, and yelling back to the swim team on the shore. A sailboat going by thought we were screaming for help and called 911,” he said.
The Coast Guard finally found the two Yeomen and shuttled them back to shore, not without firm words of admonition.
“They were really angry. Apparently the spot where we were swimming was illegal, though there were no signs anywhere. They said there were sharks,” Golden said.
The shark theme continued when a few team members went deep sea fishing on their half-day off.
“The weather was nice, but the fishing was terrible,” Strangas said. “We caught a few, maybe ten fish. Someone else on the boat caught a shark, though.”
Occurrences like these, in addition to participation in the cycle of training and recovery in close quarters with her teammates, led McGlone to describe the trip as a good bonding experience.
“I got a lot closer with other team members,” she said.
“We’re with each other 24/7 – we swim a lot, hang out, and have a party at the end,” Strangas added.
This party includes a team tradition unique to the week in Florida.
“There are lots of stores and gas stations all around the area with those white light signs with black letters that you slide on a track,” McGlone said.
“Every year, we scope one out that’s not too public,” Golden said, “and late at night we switch the letters around to say something really raunchy. It’s illegal, but fun.”
Amidst all this, some team members even had time to work on Winter Term projects.
“Team members with internships and projects where they have to be away usually don’t come to Florida,” Davis said.
However, others brought reading material or other projects to concentrate on between practices.
“We were hooked up to the Internet in the hotel room for people doing research papers,” Golden said.
All in all, swimmers consider the trip to Florida both a welcome respite from the weather and demands of Oberlin and an opportunity to improve.
“We go to be in an environment where we can focus on swimming and to get away from the terrible weather around here,” Strangas said. “It’s the most intense training we do. It brings us back after break and really gets us in shape for the conference meet.”
McGlone agreed. “It sets us up for the conference. We work really hard, and when we get back, we start to taper,” she said.
Both teams travel to Gambier, Ohio, for the NCAC championships Feb. 13-15, their last meet of the season.
“Individual goals really are our overriding goal for the championships,” Michaels said. “That’s what an individual sport like swimming is primarily about. We hope to do our best.”
In that vein, Strangas set some times he hoped to surpass.
“I have goals to go under five minutes in the 500 freestyle and under 4:25 in the 400 IM,” he said.