The Fall of Auburn

I don't know why you think this is true. It's obvious that it's okay to throw accusations around on this forum with no regard to evidence. I believe there is a subtle distinction that not everyone around here seems to understand. It's one thing to wonder if an athletic performance might have been enhanced by drugs. It's an altogether different thing to claim to know someone has jumped ship at an athletic program because you know he is a cheater. Big difference in my book.

Ignoring the blatant dig I'll comment on the situation. MAC is a huge program... Sorry about the dig, can't help myself sometimes. MAC was just an up and comer in-state rival when I was swimming in Raleigh in high school; Mel Stewart was a pipsqueek at the time. Didn't turn out that way, though! And my Raleigh team has since folded, so I guess I'm just bitter. All jokes aside, I can't help but think it is a little bit of a step down to go from a premier D1 college program to a USS team, however large and prestigious. I'm sure I need an attitude adjustment and it sounds like Marsh is doing a great job. Perhaps he just likes working with the younger swimmers more. As an aside, I have always marvelled at the dedication of age group coaches. I just spoke with one who has taking a pretty large group of teens and pre-teens to Far Westerns, something like 3 adults -- no parents! -- and 30+ kids for 5 days. I would go crazy keeping them all in line but she was very nonchalant. Another great club coach (Diane Cayce). I'm totally jealous about the resources your masters team has. Twenty lanes? Ten long course? Sheesh! (And of course I am well aware of your awesome coach.) I also noticed that NOVA -- where I swim now -- spanked MAC at Junior Nationals. (Darn, another dig! Sorry.)

I am an Auburn Swimming alum, I swam under Marsh when he was an assistant. He is a great guy and has no ethical troubles I know of. It was Quick who departed unexpectedly my freshman year 1982 for Texas and ended up in Calif. He is not the coach Marsh is

I think lots of people were jealous of Auburn's success and assumed they must be cheating (sound like some other topic to anyone?). Especially on the men's side Auburn always seemed to add a couple studs mid-season that proved to be just what they needed to win NCAAs. The fact these guys tended to be foreign raised red flags to a lot of people. There was a lot of discussion about this on collegeswimming.com. I tried to do a search there, but the search function doesn't seem to go back far enough for the thread or threads about Marsh's departure. I'm going purely by what I read over there. I have absolutely no personal knowledge about Auburn or Marsh and as far as I know they're pure as the driven snow.

My understanding is that Marsh was offered a position at MAC that is far more than an Age Group coaching position. He is the first coach to be asked by the USOC to head up their first Center of Excellence. Not exactly sure what all that means, but I think it's the first position of its kind within USA Swimming. It definitely sounded like a step forward to me. I'd be hard-pressed to believe any accusations of unethical behavior on his part. Especially when no one seems to have anything specific to say. He is a good guy who has a lot of respect from his swimmers from everything I've ever known. From Timed Finals: www.timedfinals.com/.../ Well our conjecture has become reality as it was announced today that David Marsh, head coach of the Auburn men’s and women’s swimming teams, is leaving his alma mater. Marsh will take over the position as director of the prominent Mecklenburg Aquatic Club, which established the United States Olympic Committee Center of Excellence. Marsh will serve as the head elite coach and director of the program designed to develop future Olympic caliber swimmers for the United States. “This is a unique, first-ever position that was created by the United States Olympic Committee, USA Swimming and the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club and is a outstanding opportunity for me to assist in the development of future American Olympians,” Marsh said.

Leave it to a USC fan to gloat over the demise I went to UCLA, and when I saw the comment about USC only scoring nine points, the first thing that went through my head was, "well, that's 9 more than UCLA scored", though I didn't visualize it with three dancing bananas. Skip

ehoch- USC recruited a stud swimmer from my area so they should be getting more than 9 points next year. This guy is all around swimmer, 3:50 400 IM, he just set the record at junior nats doing a 9:00 in the 1000 free.

First, no sports program ever in the history of the universe can sustain championship calibre for year after year.. Didn't Kenyon just win its 29th consecutive Div III championship? www.iht.com/.../SWM-Div-III-Championship.php

Although I root for the Cal Bears Speaking of Cal they had a nice meet on the men's side with a new coach this year (Durden) finishing fourth. Everyone points out Auburn lost a couple guys due to the Olympic year, but Cal also lost Nathan Adrian who is training with the Race Club this year.

Didn't Kenyon just win its 29th consecutive Div III championship? www.iht.com/.../SWM-Div-III-Championship.php Right, like I said, a few examples here and there, going to D III school exceeded my depth of knowledge, my bad. I'm sure some school in a suburb of Buffalo has also won curling since the 1700s that I forgot. Someone will accuse both Kenyon and Arizona of doping next.