News from Paul Davidson

Swim With Mike Since 1981 SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2012
Raised: over $13.2 million raised to date — $1M Total Scholarship dol-lars awarded 2010-2011 — 49 cur-rent scholarships — 54 total universities represented.
Featured: Swim clinic by USC swimmers, belly flop contest, relay race with USC song girls and USC foot-ball players.
SWIM-TIME WITH USC A.D. PAT HADEN
Follow my tweets, @sprintsalo and keep up on training and events as we build toward the 2012 Olympic Games. Look for “on the deck,” up to the moment, observations and news, from Omaha and London.
Big plans for the USC Aquatics facilities. Take a look at the enclosed, artistic renderings (visit the Swimming & Diving Facebook page if you do not receive a newsletter hard copy. We are on track for ground breaking in January 2013. Let us know what you think!
The Fall 2012 Swimming & Diving Banquet date set: Friday, August 31, at 6:00 PM. Alumni Relays will take place Saturday, September 1, at 10:00 AM. USC football will take on U. of Hawaii, kick-off TBA.
Call out to ALL USC Swim & Dive Olympians, past and present. This year’s banquet will celebrate USC’s international Olympic swimming & diving heritage.
We need your help! Check the newsletter insert and let us know if you have an email ad-dress (or any contact info) for any of our former Team Captains or Olympians.
On Facebook? Get connected with USC Swimming & Diving friends on the Swimming & Diving Facebook page.
THANK YOU PARENTS! Parent Booster support has been outstanding this year. Your support of the athletes, our team events and at our competitions has been noticed and appreciated by the coaches and the athletes!
Special thanks to our Parent Booster leaders, Tammy Johnson, Jamie Lendrum and Kristi Parrish for all your time and energy keeping the team parents in the loop!
Swimming Alumni! Please send newsletter content! We will continue to reach out to you, and ask you to provide stories, advice and perspective to the current-day Trojans, their families and fellow alumni. We want to hear from you! We NEED to hear from you!
FIGHT ON!
WORD FROM THE TOP: HEAD COACH DAVE SALO
USC Athletic Director, Pat Haden, took a moment out of his busy day, running the greatest athletic department, at the greatest university in the country, to answer some questions for the Trojan News.
What do you make of Matt Barkley’s decision to return for his senior year?
We are delighted that Matt Barkley is staying! Matt is an incredible young man, a great leader of our team, about to become the first three time captain in football we have ever had, and a model student. We could not ask for anything more in the leader of our football team. The fact that Matt is coming back, says a lot about his character, and the allure of a USC experience and education.
What has been your greatest achievement or contribution to the university since becoming the AD?
Since I have become Athletic Director, we have redoubled our ef-forts to make the student athlete experience as complete, full and rich as it possibly can be. It is not just on the courts and fields and gyms, but their entire university experience. We make our student athletes aware of all that is going on in campus life and I have received positive feedback from many students who have availed them-selves of many of the cultural and educa-tional opportunities that only a university like USC can provide.
What has been the greatest challenge that you’ve encountered as AD?
The greatest challenge that I have had since becoming the Athletic Director, is gaining much traction in the development area in response to our initiative to endow all our scholarships. I believe it is critical for us to endow all 280 scholarships (at $1 million each) of the athletic department and have our financial house in good shape for generations to come. Many schools across the country have had to cut sports because of the economy and the soaring costs of education and facilities. USC does not want to be in that position, and by endowing all our scholarships we would be on very strong financial footing.
FINALLY, let me say this about our swimming and diving program. It is not only one of the finest in the country, clearly demonstrable by our NCAA accomplishments, but our swimmers and divers are some of the best students we have at USC and certainly among the best in our student athlete population. I am constantly amazed at their character, intellectual capability, and interest in the world. All of us in the athletic department and at USC are blessed by their presence.
Spring-Summer Schedule
Apr 19-22—Swim Meet of Champs
May 10-13—Charlotte Grand Prix
May 25-27—Speedo Grand Challenge
May 31-Jun 3—Santa Clara Int’l
Jun 25-Jul 2—US Olympic Trials
Jul 12-15—Los Angeles Invitational
Jul 27-Aug 9—Olympic Games
Aug 7-11—US Open
TROJAN NEWS
University of Southern California Swimming & Diving - March 2012
TROJAN NEWS
University of Southern California Swimming & Diving - March 2012
MEN’S TEAM REPORT
WOMEN’S TEAM REPORT
Vogt Wrote:
Spring break in Auburn, AL was an exciting time for USC women’s swimming & diving. Four individual school records broken, 4 individual national champion-ships, a love affair with sweet tea (against Coach Salo’s desire) began, and a group of women proved the Women of Troy are determined to remain in the Top-5 for many years to come.
The University of Southern California had a group of 13 swimmers and divers at the 2012 NCAA Championships—each one was a point scorer and will garner All-American honors—what an accomplishment! The women fought hard for their 3rd place finish and made many memories; they navigated their way through ups and downs during six, hard-fought sessions. The weekend was highlight-ed by a group of women that laughed, swam and dove their hearts out. This group of women set their sights on a top-3 finish one year ago, and did everything in their power to make that dream a reality. They came home with wood for the se-cond year in a row!
Haley Anderson and Tori Ishimatsu high-lighted the first night winning two national championships in the 500 Free and 1-Meter Springboard, respectively.
The second night of the meet, Katinka Hosszu shattered the 400 IM NCAA rec
-ord and won a National Championship in an amazing 3:56.54. It was a race that featured three of the fastest women ever in that event—all going head-to-head. Everyone in the Natatorium stopped and watched the race, knowing it was going to be a special night for someone.
On the final day of competition, USC’s women were trying to hold off Stanford for 3rd place and the women’s 400 Free Relay stepped up, made the Big Final, and all but sealed a top-5 finish. Your Trojan women fought hard Saturday morning and stacked the consol and final heats in the 1650 Free, 200 Fly and 200 Breast.
As you know, relays can make or break the meet—we had all five relays qualify for the meet; the 400 Free and 800 Free Relays set new school records and the other three relays moved up from seeded times. It was a thrilling Spring Break ‘12 in Auburn and we are already refocusing our efforts to Indianapolis 2013. If memory serves correctly the last time the Women of Troy won a Team National Championship was 1997, in Indianapolis…..
Salo Swim Camp 2012 June 10-15
USC McDonalds Swim Stadium June 17-22
www.saloswimcamp.com July 1-6
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Kipp’s Korner:
“What was the DQ for?” Our men’s 800 Free Relay was disqualified because our lead-off swimmer crossed Lane 1, from Lane 2, to exit the pool. The judge offered the swimmer the opportunity to explain, but as they say, “the rule is the rule,” and our 3rd place finishing relay was disqualified. The men’s team finished in 7th place for the second straight season. The men’s team began with the goal of finishing top 5 at the NCAA Championships and were on track for most of the year. Unfortu-nately, our relays did not perform as well as expected. The first day we had two 2nd place finishes in the 500 and 50 Free-styles. Had we won those events, the men’s team may have looked back on the 2012 NCAA Championships with a different view.
We will graduate one NCAA qualifier, in Jeff Daniels, and the rest of the team was made up of freshmen and sophomores, which means that we will be returning almost the same team next year, accompanied by some very strong additions in the 2011-12 recruiting class.
I believe I can speak for the men’s team in saying that the 2012 season was very unsatisfying and left USC Men’s Swimming & Diving with a great reason to jump into our spring training with rigor and focus.
Oh, the Olympics are this year! Yes, USC will again be well-represented at the 2012 Olympics! On the men’s side, graduates Ous Mellouli (TUN) and Clement Lefert (FRA) already qualified for their countries team. Additional Trojan swimmer names that may appear in the London Games this summer are Dimitri Colupaev (GER), Vladimir Morozov (RUS), Sergio Lujan-Rivera (ESP), Chad Bobrosky (CAN), Cristian Quintero (VEN) and Alex Len-drum (USA???). The women’s side will also be well-represented, so we are proud to continue in USC’s long tradition and commitment to swimming and diving at the world’s greatest swim meet.
In the Thank You department, fundraising has been phenomenal, we have another top-4 recruiting class, and our fan, family and friend support at our competitions is at an all-time high. I wish to personally thank all of you for your support this sea-son and I look forward to thanking you in person soon. Also, if you haven’t heard, Suzy and I are expecting our 2nd child at the end of the summer, in mid-to-late Au-gust!!!
USC Top Men’s Team GPA
USC Men’s Swimming & Diving
USC 2nd Highest Women’s Team GPA
USC Women’s Swimming & Diving
Marks Scholar Athlete Recipients
Andrea Basaraba, Lolo Blair, Kasey Carlson, Stina Gardell, Meghan Hawthorne, Nicholaus Johnson, Ania Kowalczyk, Alex Lendrum, Lynette Lim, Sean Mulroy, Jack Ostler, Jessica Schmitt, Katherine Shumway, Christel Simms, Amanda Smith, Jack Wagner, Chelsea Wild
PAC-12 All-Academic Team
Michael Godbe, Alex Lendrum, Jack Ostler, Sarah Webb
PAC-12 Post Grad Scholarship Winner
Amanda Smith
S&D Academic Achievement
TROJAN NEWS
University of Southern California Swimming & Diving - March 2012
PETER DALAND:
ENDOWED CHAIR DRIVE
Following the celebration of former USC Swimming Coach, Peter Daland’s, 90th Birthday, April 2011, there arose a strong interest, by swimming alumni and the university, to see to it that USC Swimming & Diving would go on, FOREVER!
So evolved the drive to endow the Swimming & Diving Head Coach’s Chair, in the name of Peter Daland!
To date, we have secured $455,000.00 toward our goal of $2 Million. In recent phone conversations we have received verbal commitments for additional dona-tions..
Please call, 213-740-8452, if you would like to con-tribute!
LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE AGES: USC TEAM CAPTAINS
USC Swimming & Diving has benefited from great leadership through the years. Former team captain, Chris Chalmers (1993) took time out to answer our question, pertaining to team leadership:
A team is made up of many individuals and personalities, with a variety of swimming experiences and back-grounds. What strategies did you use to bring and keep the team together? Looking back, is there anything that you might now handle differently?
One thing that makes the NCAA collegiate swimming experience so different from the traditional swimming world is the “TEAM” emphasis. For such an individual sport, it is hard to explain how the team mentality is so important in achieving not only individual goals but also team/shared goals. The key to re-member about the NCAA’s is not one individual can win the meet by themselves so all the swimmers are important to the final score. A swimmer who just swims one event and is not expected to score points can make a huge difference for the team by scoring just one point; this in turn can motivate someone else to make an impact. Positive energy and shared commitment to doing the best they can do will make everyone better. You see this in every major sporting event – momentum begets momentum. In football, a goal line stand, in hockey a big hit, baseball, a 2-out single. These events taken by themselves don’t mean a lot, but the feeling every person on the team gets is “I can do that too”. Once all the team members feel they can do something small to contribute, the overall impact is huge. This does happen in swimming also, we see it all the time on relays – how often do you see people swim best times on relays?
It is important to know that each swimmer is different and preparation is different, but to know that you have 25 guys that you have trained so hard with for the last year behind every stroke you take makes it a shared challenge. Take some time before the big meets and challenge the team to a goal, and each person to commit to their part of it. Make it part of the practice, so when you’re there at the meet, you have done it before.
Captains Corner: The Foundation for a Championship
Based on your experiences this year, what did you learn about leadership that you would like to pass on to future captains?
Tori:
Being a captain can be overwhelming at times but in the end it's worth it. For diving next year, the team size will almost triple and the need for the captain to stay on top of things will be crucial. For future captains make sure you have good relationships with the other captains to keep the communication up. You set the tone for the team to follow. This includes work ethic in and out of pool.
Amanda:
Being named captain for this past season was one of the most re-warding experiences, and I am very grateful for what I have learned about being a leader and even about myself. A huge part of being captain is being able to distinguish what is the best for the team, and not just a few individuals. And while you may make some people upset in that process, in the end it always works out the best for the group. Being able to do the best for the team is important because working as a team with your teammates, co-captains, coaches and staff, fellow men's team captains, etc., really made for a successful season on both sides of our program this year. You have to be open and ready for anything every single day. If the future captains can acquire these skills, this pro-gram will continue with its positive, successful team culture. And I believe, that these are skills that can be transferred into the "real world" and lead to success any-where!
Jack: Leading this team as captain was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, but also one of the hardest jobs of my life. Always be setting an example for the team, and work to ensure proper communication at all times. Your team will serve you if you serve them.
TROJAN NEWS
University of Southern California Swimming & Diving - March 2012
Jack Ostler
Alex Lendrum
Katinka Hosszu
Tory Ishimatsu
Amanda Smith
Recipient
Address Here
USC ATHLETICS WON 4TH
CONSECUTIVE GAUNTLET
DURING 2010-11