Former Secretary of State Colin Powell once said, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”
Ohio’s swimming and diving team took that quote to heart as its Thanksgiving break was shortened to 54 hours. All 25 Bobcats were dismissed Wednesday after morning practice and had to return to the Aquatic Center on Friday afternoon.
With the season heading into December, Ohio’s coaching staff is determined to leave nothing to chance.
“The practice this past weekend was brutal,” Ohio coach Greg Werner said, adding that the swim team practiced twice Sunday — an unusual procedure.
Still, that is not the only unusual process the Bobcats have undergone. For the first time since 1969, the swimming and diving team has to return to the Aquatic Center and practice while academics are still in session.
“We are missing those two weeks where the swimmers can just be athletes,” Werner said. “This has to be made up at some other given time. Thanksgiving was perfect for this.”
Werner admitted that the hard practice in combination with the short break affects the Bobcats.
“They are emotionally, physically fatigued,” Werner said. “They have to understand that you have to make a lot of sacrifices. Hopefully, they will feel better by the weekend.”
With the Zippy Invitational scheduled this weekend, the Bobcats are facing a tough three-day meeting. In its last invitational of the 2012 campaign, Ohio will face Toledo, Buffalo, and host Akron — three other Mid-American Conference swim teams, which they will see again at the MAC championships in March.
“This invitational is an indicator of where the championships will go, but it’s not truly the same,” Werner said, adding that the scoring system is different and that six other teams are competing as well, intensifying the complexity of the meet.
Last year, the Bobcats won the invitational ahead of Toledo, while the Bobcats fell 23 points short of Toledo in last year’s MAC championship meet several months later.
Still, Werner does not see the first match-up with Toledo as a chance to take revenge.
“It’s not the same team as last year,” he said. “If you only motivate based on emotion, the experience (of swimming) will be short lived. There is no success based off anger. It’s based on the process.”
For a moment, Werner sounds as if he were Colin Powell.
am794811@ohiou.edu
Up next:
Zippy Invitational, Akron. Friday – Saturday.
