The Other UT

Today I woke up at 3am to catch a 5am flight. It was one of those mornings where all I was thinking was "kill kill kill!". The evening before I had to make a late night run to the pharmacy to get some antibiotics for a sinus infection that had rendered me unable to function. I also discovered, after an appointment at the after hours clinic, that I had allergies acting up as well as a virus. The pressure in my sinus region was so bad I thought my head would explode. So in addition to my antibiotics, I am also taking sudafed, allegra, eye drops, benedryl, and affrin.

For the record, I did not plan the flight. I accompanied my swimmer to Knoxville, Tennessee for her 3 swims at Division III nationals. We found it rather funny that there is another UT that also has orange and white for their colors. Knoxville is not at all what I expected. Strangely enough, it reminds me a lot of Austin with its lake/river views, boutiques, and University town setting. You can see our Marriott Hotel in the pic below. Me and Shawna, the trainer, took a long walk through the city and found a great pizza place as well as discovering Marble Slab. I have not been to Marble Slab since I lived in Utah.



I was also struck by the 2 year old aquatic facilities. Not only do they have this brand new facility, but they also have 2 (indoor and outdoor) other 50 meter pools. I wanted to transport one of them back to Southwestern. It is a very nice pool, but the visitor lockers rooms have a capacity of 50 and there are going to be 800 girls trying to put on their suits at the same time. This is going to be interesting.

Redemption!

A year ago, I was in a very uncomfortable position. I wanted to make a leap into the college coaching scene by doing swim camps. I applied to the UT swim camp, but was rejected. I also ended up having the pool for my club team stolen by the aquatics director who decided to start a team of their own. It was a very depressing time. However, things have turned around quite dramatically this year. I am now in a job I love coaching at Southwestern University and was also accepted into both UT and A&M swim camps as a coach/counselor. I was stewing over which camp to choose when I came up with a brilliant solution, why not do both? So I am now going to be doing a straight 7 weeks of swim camps starting at the end of May. I am so excited, but I have a feeling I will want to die a couple weeks in.

Last week a member of the US Olympic committee and sport research director came to speak at Southwestern. I don't remember the guys name. During his presentation he showed numerous pictures of athletes and would ask the audience who they were. I began to feel quite uneducated about sports as picture after picture would appear and I would have no idea who they were yet others knew them all immediately along with every stat and detail about their performance. After about 20 pictures were identified a very familiar one was projected showing a line of men all dressed in black. The audience was in complete silence. The presenter seemed to have the sense that he finally stumped us all when I shouted with great pride and enthusiasm (maybe a little too loudly) "ALL BLACKS!". Everyone turned around and stared at me. The presenter was shocked and as a result gave me a t-shirt. I was so happy and felt as though I was now the top dog. I shall never doubt myself again.