Southern California swim club Mission Viejo is breaking new ground this spring, hiring on 6-time Turkish Olympian Derya Buyukuncu as the program’s new sprint coach. Head coach Mark Schubert broke the news to SwimSwam Wednesday, noting his excitement to bring Buyukuncu on board.
“This is something new for us,” Schubert said. “We’re really excited with this hire. It’s going to add a whole new dynamic to the program.”
Mission Viejo has produced a large number of elite national- and international-level swimmers, the vast majority of them in distance or mid-distance races. The list of notable Mission Viejo Nadadore alums stretches back to at least the 1970s. That list includes Brian Goodell, Mary T. Meagher, Shirley Babashoff and Jesse Vassallo. More recently, Mission Viejo produced distance stars Ashley Twichell, Chloe Sutton and Chad La Tourette along with open water star Fran Crippen and 200 flyer Katie McLaughlin.
But Buyukuncu will now head up a sprint contingent for the team. Schubert says Buyukuncu will work alongside him with the club’s national group, for its older swimmers. Buyukuncu already started coaching the team at the beginning of this week.
Mission Viejo is currently in transition between longtime head coach Bill Rose and Schubert, who returns to the club after coaching there in the 1970s and 1980s. Rose will coach until the end of this year before retiring, and Schubert will coach alongside him for 2017 and continue in the head coach role after that.
Buyukuncu was the first swimmer to compete in 6 consecutive Olympics. Both he and Lars Frolander completed that feat in 2012 after competing at the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He was a backstroker, winning World and European Championships bronze medals in the 100 back in 2000. He also competed for the University of Michigan in the mid-90s.
Buyukuncu has previously been coaching. He was listed among the coaches at the Gators Swim Club in southern California as recently as last week.
Where are MVN going to train in 2017? Isn’t there facility under major renovations?
They’ve already been training at local high schools and colleges for since the reconstruction began, and Mark has been coaching for a few months now.
Mark S has been one of the best coaches in the world for 40 years or so. His move from Mission Viejo to Mission Bay was ill-timed, given the US economy in the 80’s. He did a great job at Texas but longed to return to Southern California (which he did with the move to USC). I love the fact that he’s returning to Mission Viejo after all these years. Bill Rose is a class act and obviously has faith in Mark and respect for his many talents as a coach and a motivator. Mark built the MVN from zero to greatness ant the club remains one of the best known programs in the country all these years later. Hats… Read more »
I’m not sure Mission Viejo is the first club you think of when you talk about Mary T. Peripheral at best.
Or fran
Old Dominion Aquatic Club is what I think of.
Folks, he did more than “compete” for Michigan. He was a LEGEND the day he walked on campus in 1994. I swam in the 100 Free in Dec of 1994. I did not win.
More notable than beating me at the Eastern Michigan Invitational would be: Michigan School records 100 Fly/100 Back/200 Back, Big Ten records in both backstrokes, twice Big Ten Swimmer of the Year. And if you know anything about Royce Sharp and his legendary training exploits (which I know 99% of you don’t), those were FAST records. I, along with anyone who saw his talent in person was in awe.
So any little Mission Viejo rugrats that might read this before Coach B arrives: Shut up and… Read more »
What does any of that rant have to do with his ability to coach kids?
Dang. You don’t know Royce Sharp.
Mark “9 Lives” Schubert; the clock (was) is ticking at: Mission Bay Makos, UT, USC, USA Nat’l Team, Golden West College and Swim Club) now MVN.
As the song goes: “when will they ever learn?”