Going through three coaches in three years can be hard for college athletes. Addison Ferguson, Haley Clark and Ariel Hodges all talked about how it has affected them and the team as swimmers and how they overcame the mental toughness.
This season marks the third consecutive season that juniors Addison Ferguson, Haley Clark and Ariel Hodges will have a new coach.
The ever-changing program has affected them as swimmers and teammates.
All three entered the program under coach Greg Werner and planned on swimming under his leadership from their freshman year until graduation.
Before their sophomore season began, Werner was fired after being at the helm for 18 years. His dismissal led to the appointment of Derick Roe on Oct. 30, 2013, to become the interim coach.
Following an entire season under Roe, Ohio found a new head coach for the 2014-15 season, Rachel Komisarz-Baugh, and hopes to have the former Olympic star stay as long as Werner did.
Clark, Ferguson and Hodges all reacted positively to each new coach.
“It was hard,” Ferguson said. “Because coming in you don’t expect that, but at the same time you have to adapt to what’s going on.”
Adapting was something all the Bobcats had to do because they have had to learn from three different coaching styles.
Werner focused more on yardage and power training, while Roe focused on quality training. Komisarz-Baugh’s training program involves a little bit of both.
As a result, the team faced some hardships throughout this three-year span.
“The most difficult part was not knowing what to expect from each coach,” Hodges said. “But we have a good coach now and that is all that matters.”
Clark came to Ohio for the swimming program. Being from College Station, Texas, both her parents graduated and swam at Ohio and she wanted to continue their legacy.
Clark had no intentions of transferring, despite the coach changing year after year. She said it was like having three different freshman years.
“Ever since I’ve been at OU, I have loved it,” Clark said. “Regardless of who is on the team, or the coaches, I loved the atmosphere.”
Ferguson, however, did have thoughts of transferring. She said last year was her hardest year. But Ferguson, a Westfield Central native, said that even with thoughts about transferring, she never could have followed through.
One thing that helped her shy away from those thoughts was her perception of herself progressing as a swimmer and her feeling that the program was just going through change, so it was in her best interest to stay.
Ferguson, Clark and Hodges all said the only thing they all had in common was being teammates.
“As a team we all just stuck together,” Ferguson said. “We knew that no one on the team was going anywhere, so we were always there for each other when we needed it.”
Clark also relied heavily on her teammates.
“If I didn’t have these girls with me, I would not have been able to do it by myself,” she said.
Changing a coach can be mentally difficult, because each one brings a different philosophy to the team, but the three Bobcats didn’t see their skills change dramatically.
Whenever a new coach took charge, the Bobcats’ goal was to welcome the coach, adapt to the new style and hope they would get better from it.
And Ferguson, Hodges and Clark each saw themselves grow over the course of three years and three coaches.
@wynstonw_
ww773412@ohio.edu
