Head Coach - Badger Faison
BACKGROUND:
Folks, here goes: Got a great wife, been together through “thick and thin”, 20+ years. Divorce rate is highest among swim coaches and she has hung in there. Her name is Linda Jo, she is from Chicago, and is a Starbucks Barista for the past 16 years. As far as myself, I've been coaching, teaching - involved in Aquatics for over 30 years.
My background in swimming began with parents that loved the water. As a youngster we put on family comedy diving shows on Sundays and holidays at large local Cincinnati public swim pools to help draw in patrons. My Pop was a “hoot” and took a lot of “belly busters.” I began swimming competitively at the age of 5, at 10; I was training with the University of Cincinnati swim team coach “Tiny Phiefer”, coach of several Olympians and NCAA record holders at the time. As a competitive swimmer, lettered, team captain, some national recognition, in high school and college set some records, helped win some championships. Swam 200 IM, 100 Fly in high school; college, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, 200 & 400 IM’s. I also lettered in football, cross country; and was offered college scholarships not only in swimming but also in football. Some say that is where my “gentle touch” comes from.
My first team as a Head Coach was our country club, after that I became an Age Group Coach for the nationally ranked Cincinnati Marlins.
In aquatics I have been a Red Cross WSI Instructor, certified YMCA Aquatic Director, YMCA Southern Regional Director; participated at a national level on various committees; taught, trained, pre-school to lifeguards, administered instructional programs at all levels [largest program - 4 pool YMCA complex where 1500 learned how to swim each week]. As my programs succeeded, I found myself putting on weekend clinics in 11 states [no GA] for a dozen years for the YMCA teaching instructors “how to teach swimming” and coaches, “how to coach.” As a YMCA Director I was promoted and transferred from Ohio to Florida to South Carolina, each time, a more challenging facility and program.
If you are a swim coach, you don’t do it for the money; so from time to time I had to leave coaching to do a little marketing in the corporate world and earn a little bit more. My special area is working as a consultant for small banks – enabling small banks to compete with large banks. Other than that, my wife and I have physically built a home together each place that we take a job.
My job in aquatics with these past 4 teams [Greenville Gators, Greenville, SC; Snohomish StingRays Seattle, WA; E-Town Kentucky Dolphins, and the Quad Squad (four Hardin County High Schools), Elizabethtown, KY; Med City Aquatics Rochester, MN] has been to get the teams to that next level up. We have been able to do that by providing quality programs lead by seasoned, experienced and successful coaches; working with great parents and swim team boards sharing a common vision; putting into place an action plan - a team tested proven approach to: get 'em on the team, keep 'em on the team, and to enable 'em to be as good as the can be. The task at times seems to be daunting / challenging but if past history has told us anything, it is this – that if we stay the course, work the plan, we will get to where we are going.
COACHING APPROACH:
Our coaching begins and ends with the focus on all the members of the team. Our swimmers learn early that we care about all our swimmers, that they are measured against their yardstick, not someone else’s. We want them to know that every swimmer can and will be a “Champion” in their own right if the commitment is made.
Our focus is on the swimmer's activity, their commitment – and we keep the numbers in front of them as we track, monitor, manage, and motivate through the numbers - attendance, best times, quality of times, test sets, patterns, progressions, indexing, etc.. As far as the resources we use for education and training – we use books, clinics, DVDs and other coaches for our stroke, starts, turns, drills and practice ideas. My most favorite DVD Coach is: Richard Quick. Our program involves stretching, dryland and for those who are ready, Vasa and lightweights.
Developing, nurturing, focusing on what develops self-awareness, builds and reinforces a positive self-esteem, a strong work ethic, along with the mastery of fundamentals while developing a well-conditioned athlete that takes responsibility, is accountable, and willing to build lifetime success habits – these individuals become our “Champions”. Their success stories in and out of the swimming pool are the accomplishments we are most proud of. These are the goals of our program now and in the past.
We do not take lightly this responsibility. For us it is a passion, every moment we have we use the best way we can. Our past success does not guarantee future success but it does say that if we've “been there, done that” then we are more likely to know what it takes to get there again.
Our past numbers are as follows: as far as team and building the numbers of swimmers involved: our SC team went from 48 to 258 swimmers, in WA the team went from 35 to 155 swimmers, and then in KY we went from 40 to 191 swimmers [when we include the High School teams with the club]. And as far as the individual, we touched the lives 1000 swimmers who had a positive self-esteem building experience that is shown by their commitment to our program; and how many go to the “big dance” … the last 4 teams produced: 18 All-Americans / Nationally Ranked Swimmers, 2 World Ranked Swimmers, 2 State Championship Teams and 3 High School State Championships Teams and a team finished 2 years in a row as “Challenge Series Team Champion” for all the NW LSC Divisions. And folks, along the way I was honored by being selected by my peers: as 2007, 2008, 2009 “Coach of the Year” by Region 3 High School Coaches.
We’re proud of our record, because of what was accomplished - no one expected, no one thought it possible – and we did with new swimmers, and it was not the efforts of one, but the efforts of many: swimmers, parents, officials, administrators, coaches, etc. Good stats are the result of TEAM, nothing else.
OUR BEGINNING:
All that past is and was a WOW for me; but with each new team you start at the same place as you did with all the teams before – the beginning, a blank page. We know very little about of each other, you probably now know more about me than I about you. And at this point we have no history – no relationship. Well folks that will all change shortly as we begin to tackle the challenges, the opportunities in front of us together. I’d like to say it will be smooth sailing all the way, but I know we will have our times when we’re not all headed in the same direction, but hopefully we hang tough and get through it all so that at the end of it all we shake hands, smile, have respect for each other knowing we did a great job with the time we had together.
WRAP:
In conclusion, I work well with swimmers and parents. I'm seasoned, knowledgeable; a successful Head Coach; eager for the new challenge, the opportunity to do what I do best ... coaching and teaching swimming. So folks, let's get to know each other and have some fun.
Badger
