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With the biggest meet of the season just days away, there was an obvious sense of cool confidence surrounding the Blue Springs and Blue Springs South swimming and diving teams as they practiced Wednesday afternoon.
With the Suburban Big Six and Middle Six Conference Championships slated to start with Friday’s preliminaries at Henley Aquatic Center in Independence, both squad’s coaches seemed to shrug off the pressure typically attached to the meet. Part of the reason for that is what each group has already accomplished.
The Jaguars reached a handful of state cuts early in the season, leaving a huge chunk of the schedule open to shift their focus toward year-end goals.
“That was new for us, getting so many early,” said South coach Errich Oberlander, whose team has already garnered eight individual cuts and has qualified in all three relays. “... It’s really brought the team close with the common goal of working to swim well at the end of the season.”
The pressure was lifted off the Wildcats last month when they reached three first-time cuts on the way to winning the Kansas City Classic. For a team that’s worked on building confidence all season, that was a breakthrough.
“I think that was a major confidence-booster,” said Blue Springs senior Ibby Simcox, who added that the Wildcats are shooting for the program’s conference points record of 608. “That was a confidence-booster for the entire team.”
Blue Springs co-coach Bill Shalley said he’s taken to using a few motivational ploys to strengthen his girls’ belief in themselves. At the KC Classic, he handed out old technical suits and several swimmers reached their best times. Shalley said his guess is that the suits served more as a placebo than anything.
“It’s not about a suit, it’s not about a pool, it’s about you and the person in the suit,” he said. “Sometimes a person needs that as a little boost, and they responded and did great.”
For the conference meet, Shalley and the Wildcats’ other co-coach, Rob Sturman, have a bet in place to try to coax some additional personal bests from a few more swimmers. If the team meets its benchmarks, the coaches will don the other’s favorite college team’s apparel. Shalley, who is a Missouri Tigers diehard, will rock the crimson and blue of Sturman’s Kansas Jayhawks and vice versa.
“Blue and red has never been on this body together,” Shalley said. “I’m sure black and gold has never been on (Sturman) together.”
With the biggest meet of the season just days away, there was an obvious sense of cool confidence surrounding the Blue Springs and Blue Springs South swimming and diving teams as they practiced Wednesday afternoon.
With the Suburban Big Six and Middle Six Conference Championships slated to start with Friday’s preliminaries at Henley Aquatic Center in Independence, both squad’s coaches seemed to shrug off the pressure typically attached to the meet. Part of the reason for that is what each group has already accomplished.
The Jaguars reached a handful of state cuts early in the season, leaving a huge chunk of the schedule open to shift their focus toward year-end goals.
“That was new for us, getting so many early,” said South coach Errich Oberlander, whose team has already garnered eight individual cuts and has qualified in all three relays. “... It’s really brought the team close with the common goal of working to swim well at the end of the season.”
The pressure was lifted off the Wildcats last month when they reached three first-time cuts on the way to winning the Kansas City Classic. For a team that’s worked on building confidence all season, that was a breakthrough.
“I think that was a major confidence-booster,” said Blue Springs senior Ibby Simcox, who added that the Wildcats are shooting for the program’s conference points record of 608. “That was a confidence-booster for the entire team.”
Blue Springs co-coach Bill Shalley said he’s taken to using a few motivational ploys to strengthen his girls’ belief in themselves. At the KC Classic, he handed out old technical suits and several swimmers reached their best times. Shalley said his guess is that the suits served more as a placebo than anything.
“It’s not about a suit, it’s not about a pool, it’s about you and the person in the suit,” he said. “Sometimes a person needs that as a little boost, and they responded and did great.”
For the conference meet, Shalley and the Wildcats’ other co-coach, Rob Sturman, have a bet in place to try to coax some additional personal bests from a few more swimmers. If the team meets its benchmarks, the coaches will don the other’s favorite college team’s apparel. Shalley, who is a Missouri Tigers diehard, will rock the crimson and blue of Sturman’s Kansas Jayhawks and vice versa.
“Blue and red has never been on this body together,” Shalley said. “I’m sure black and gold has never been on (Sturman) together.”
Blue Springs is a heavy favorite to capture its 12th consecutive conference championship, but from there the meet becomes much less predictable. Oberlander said the Jaguars, Lee’s Summit, Lee’s Summit North and Liberty could all finish anywhere from second to fifth.
“It’s so much fun because anything can happen,” Oberlander said. “Literally, anything can happen. It adds to the focus factor a little bit and really makes them concentrate. Every race matters, and that’s what’s fun.”
That also adds some additional butterflies, which South junior Morgan Connors said is something that just has to be overlooked.
“It’s kind of intimidating,” Connors said, “because obviously we want to beat those teams. But we’re just going to have fun with it, because when you have fun that’s when you go your fastest.”
There’s also plenty at stake for Truman as well in the Middle Six, in which Lee’s Summit West is the heavy favorite. Patriots coach Trevor Tomney has worked with an inexperienced core this season, but he’s looking for the type of effort the Jaguars received last season, when Oberlander said his young squad manufactured a steady fifth-place finish, which helped sharpen its focus earlier in the season this year.
“It adds to their confidence,” Tomney said. “And it also motivates them to look into swimming in the offseason and swimming year-round with a club team, which is what I hope some of them will do.”
