I'm always interested in hearing about the USMS demographics, but I couldn't find any information on USMS and college swimming. I was wondering roughly what percentage of US Masters swimmers swam in college and at what level. I also wanted to hear from you where you went, when, and what you loved / hated most about college swimming.
I swam four years in a D-III school, and pretty much burned out my Junior year. Lots of garbage yards, not a lot of stroke work and a coach that was paying a lot of attention to his mid-life crisis (along with the new blond diving coach) and not so much to recruiting or coaching.
Similar experience for me - 4 years D-III school, my first coach was really good, but he got stupid with the new blond diving coach (not sure why though, and don't want to know) and he ended up getting dismissed after my 2nd year. The new coach came in and point blank said to me that the incoming freshman and those after were "his team" and that was where he was going to put his time and effort - he felt he might be able to "rescue" some of the returning freshmen. He was concerned with our (juniors and seniors) attitudes. We lost a couple of really good guys to that - and we were a small team 12-15 total. I was too stubborn to quit, I wasn't letting him push me out, swam most of my senior season alone in the mornings. In the end, I was elected the team captain the final two years and voted the team MVP twice more, and I could see that it pained him to announce those results. So much for my "bad attitude". But I was done with swimming at that point.
Still in touch with some old teammates-have gone to some alumni meets, stuff like that, all in all no real regrets. Would have liked Coach #1 to have stuck around, #2 kind of soured me on coaches, might have started masters earlier if the last years were more fun and enjoyable.
I swam four years in a D-III school, and pretty much burned out my Junior year. Lots of garbage yards, not a lot of stroke work and a coach that was paying a lot of attention to his mid-life crisis (along with the new blond diving coach) and not so much to recruiting or coaching.
Similar experience for me - 4 years D-III school, my first coach was really good, but he got stupid with the new blond diving coach (not sure why though, and don't want to know) and he ended up getting dismissed after my 2nd year. The new coach came in and point blank said to me that the incoming freshman and those after were "his team" and that was where he was going to put his time and effort - he felt he might be able to "rescue" some of the returning freshmen. He was concerned with our (juniors and seniors) attitudes. We lost a couple of really good guys to that - and we were a small team 12-15 total. I was too stubborn to quit, I wasn't letting him push me out, swam most of my senior season alone in the mornings. In the end, I was elected the team captain the final two years and voted the team MVP twice more, and I could see that it pained him to announce those results. So much for my "bad attitude". But I was done with swimming at that point.
Still in touch with some old teammates-have gone to some alumni meets, stuff like that, all in all no real regrets. Would have liked Coach #1 to have stuck around, #2 kind of soured me on coaches, might have started masters earlier if the last years were more fun and enjoyable.
