Tucson Ford Aquatics has an opening for head coach, with Kevin Milak no longer listed on the team’s coaching staff. Sources close to the situation said that new Arizona University coach Eric Hansen didn’t feel like Milak was the coach that was going to make the program the best in the country. The way the Tucson Ford program is structured, the head coach of the collegiate team has final say in the position of the head coach of the club team. There is some head-scratching about the move, because of the success of the program in the last year. Though the head coach of the club arm focuses mostly on the high school and younger groups, it’s still a very successful program even outside of the post-grads. Under Milak’s watch, they sent 14 swimmers to the NCSA Junior Nationals meet last week, including a pair of swimmers who earned new Olympic Trials cuts at the meet. Now three on the junior side will be in Omaha, as compared to 16-months ago when he took over there was only one with even Junior National cuts…
The USADA has released their 4th quarter testing numbers from 2011, and former World Record holder Ian Crocker remains in the testing pool, having been knocked on 8 times in the 4th quarter (after 4 in the third) with a concentration that is common when an elite athlete returns back to the pool. Still no official competition results from him in Masters (the only events for which he’s eligible yet). No other surprises in this quarter’s pool, though Aaron Peirsol finally seems to have been removed (or just wasn’t picked), though he was still being tested after announcing his retirement. Interestingly, only 59 swimmers were tested in the 4th quarter, which is roughly half-as-many as the quarter prior…
Chloe Sutton, Christine Jennings, and the rest of the Mission Viejo Nadadores kicked off a three-week stint at the Olympic Training Center this week. This will be a welcome escape from the controversy that ripped through the club earlier this week with this OC Register story about former coach Daniel Ad’m Dusenbury, who may or may not (the athlete in question denies it) have had a relationship with a former athlete. We haven’t seen competition from most of the Nadadores in quite some time, and expectation is that they’re putting in their typically-tough distance workouts. At least one other National Teamer, David Plummer out of the Minnesota club arm, will be in Colorado Springs for the next month as well…
Roland Schoeman will reduce the epic sprint field in Indy by at least one, as he will be sitting this one out. Still, Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Josh Schneider, and a huge crew of other sprinters will be there, so be ready for a lot of whitewater regardless…
Eric Hansen is a narcissist. Bet the college team implodes under his leadership.
yup…. 3 sophomore girls have requested transfers this week, and there are many disgruntled people (club team, college team, post-grads, the tucson swimming community, etc)… if trials wasn’t 4 weeks away, there would be a massive exodus.
the days of the UofA/Ford program being a family atmosphere filled with honesty and respect left town when frank left.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/highschoolsports/2012/03/26/three-swimmers-qualify-for-olympic-trials/
Published on the 26th (Monday after the meet) and the article already refers to Kevin Milak as the former head coach. At the very least, leave the whole coaching part out of it. How disrespectful can one be?
Kevin is one of the most loyal and hard working coaches in the profession (which is a rare find these days). His number of Olympic Trials qualifiers at Tucson and BTA is higher than many LSCs. Kevin was completely blind sighted. Eric never communicated any concerns, and now those club kids do not have their coach going into Trials. Eric is clearly out of touch with his club program. He also has a lot to learn about professionalism.
Recruits and potential coaches- TAKE WARNING. Actions speak louder than words.
Best of luck to Kevin and Emily, two of the most genuinely sincere people in the sport.
Couldn’t agree more.
This entire situation took everyone by surprise.
This is crazy. I’ve talked to Kevin at swim meets before and you can even watch his old videos on flowswimming.org where it is obvious Kevin has great knowledge in the sport of swimming.
Unreal about Kevin at Tucson Ford. Good guy and good coach. Not sure what could have prompted Eric’s decision considering Kevin’s recent and past success?
Sounds like an impulsive move from Eric, and not well conceived. U of A could have done better in its selection of its of a head coach.
A little bit surprised too, especially with how visibly he’s been promoting the program as recently as last week. I think it probably caught everyone in Tucson a bit off-guard.
I don’t know the new head coach at U of A, and I really don’t know Kevin Milak either except for a few e-mails in preparation for NCSA Jr. Nats… but I can’t imagine why he would send Milak packing when he has proven he can develop talent.
I hope Kevin lands a premier job somewhere else. He certainly seems to know what he’s doing.
i think chad latourette is up at OTC with MV….must be using his olympic waiver for their 3rd quarter?