I have no connection to the coach, or Stanford, or any of the individuals involved. You can thus count my opinion as unbiased or uninformed.
The article in the Stanford Daily and the comments afterward were very interesting. It seems that no one is arguing about the poor judgement about the deleting of the record times. But everyone is scrambling to either buff up or rationalize the motivation behind this action.
It seems to me that this is a situation where some have become too enamored with a fabled coach. His record speaks for itself- successful motivator, successful competitor, successful communicator. You'd have to ask what price his success has come at. The claims that he was always motivated for the benefit of the team and to no one individual to me seems disingenious. He was the team. His swimmers were the ones who made that sacrifice. It seems that Michael Maclean had certainly sacrificied for the team in acheiving his times in the 500 and throughout his first three years at Stanford.
Yet when Maclean made a decision that his personal goals outside of swimming countered team workouts, he was made a pariah. It strikes me as sad when one is castigated for any chinks in the armor of total dedication to the sport, even after 3 full seasons and much acheivment.
I can understand the coach being unhappy if the guy was on an athletic scholarship. Stanford costs $47,000 a year and there are all sorts of swimmers who are willing to give 100% in return for their education. I do believe this one was a walk-on.
I can understand if the swimmer took 3+ months out of the pool and returned 10# overweight and too out of shape to keep up with the rest of the team in workouts in September. There is no off season for D1 athletes in a top-ranked program. They are in a program requiring commitment and excellence, not just fitness and participation.
But expunging his records is either very wrong or very sloppy.
I have to agree with Tom on this......what would people be saying if it was Pablo's times or Sabir's times being expunged?
You have to look at the coaches actions - He was wrong!
A coach can react either positively or negatively to every situation. This was IMHO the wrong way to react in this situation. Sounds like he didn't get his way and acted like a kid in elementary school...."If you won't do it the way I want, I'm taking my stuff and going home!"
Are we in agreement that this is the only instance in which this coach rearranged the record board to his own personal liking? Or do you suppose this happened in the past, but no one argued the "adjustments?"
From my personal experiences in the swimming community, I've witnessed people in a position of authority who have the means to adjust records often abuse that power and records "disappear" and are "rearranged." Often, no one bothers to argue the situation if it's even discovered at all. Has anyone else experienced this or am I the lone ranger here?
Doesn't sound like Kenney will be fired. Interestingly the swimmer who "blew the whistle" so to speak now regrets his decision...
Where are you getting this info?
