NCAA Champion and recent University of Alabama graduate Robert Howard will join veteran coach Jonty Skinner – who was named associate head sprint coach at Indiana University this month – in Bloomington after the 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships in August, he told SwimSwam Tuesday.
“It was a hard decision to leave Tuscaloosa, but the chemistry Jonty Skinner and I have built over the past 4 years is not something I want to leave one year out from Trials,” Howard said. “It was especially hard considering the improvements to Alabama’s pool in the fall, but the pro environment in Indiana is a great opportunity for me. Alabama will forever be in my heart, but I have to see this goal out and I think this move will help put me in the best position to succeed. Roll Tide!”
Howard added that he already had plans in Tuscaloosa for this summer, which is why he will wait until after Nationals to make the move.
The decorated IU pro group includes Blake Pieroni, Cody Miller, Zane Grothe and Annie Lazor, as well as recent graduates Lilly King, Zach Apple, and Vini Lanza, among others. The group is notably losing some sprinters, however, as Olympians Ryan Held and Ali Khalafalla, as well as multi-time Worlds medalist Margo Geer, are following former Indiana sprint coach Coley Stickels to Alabama as he was named head coach last month.
The Alabama native Howard had a career season last school year, taking home SEC titles in both the 50 and 100 free in February. At the 2019 NCAA Championships, he finished third in the 50 free and fifth in the 100, then anchored his team’s first-place 200 medley relay in 18.22. At Nationals last summer, Howard finished eighth in the 50 free, going a best time of 22.17 in prelims, and 11th in a PR of 48.67.
All these pros just glad their coaches didn’t take the Stanford job and make them choose whether to move with the coach and do Olympic prep whilst living in a dog kennel (rent $1200 plus bills).
For the brand baby
Who has two finger-guns, and isn’t afraid to use them? This guy!
Your username is perfect for this comment.
Hambone you were the worst gym coach we ever had
*pew pew
Any undergrads making the switch to or from AL/IU?
At a certain point it just becomes two swim teams swapping facilities
What’s the 256 on his wrist?
I don’t know what emotional significance that it holds for him, but it’s the area code of his home town of Alexander City, Alabama.
256 is the only 3-digit number that is zenzizenzizenzic. You heard it hear first on SwimSwam.
Good knowledge by Ol’ LongHorn:
“Zenzizenzizenzic is an obsolete form of mathematical notation representing the eighth power of a number (that is, the zenzizenzizenzic of x is x8), dating from a time when powers were written out in words rather than as superscript numbers. This term was suggested by Robert Recorde, a 16th-century Welsh writer of popular mathematics textbooks, in his 1557 work The Whetstone of Witte (although his spelling was zenzizenzizenzike); he wrote that it “doeth represent the square of squares squaredly”. Source: Wikipedia
here*
A coach from IU is going to Alabama. A swimmer from Alabama is going to IU. Two swimmers from IU are going to Alabama and a coach from Alabama is going to IU. I think I got it.
3 swimmers from IU I thought
Easier to follow and a more satisfying conclusion than GoT, that’s for sure
3 swimmers from IU are going to Alabama. Also Ali Khalafalla (pardon my spelling if its wrong)
And a partridge in a pear tree?
All that’s missing in this trade are a few draft picks in 2020.
And some pool money for international signings…
Let me know when Bama trades a D lineman for a field goal kicker.
Arizona State is feeling left out….
Bruh he swapped with Ryan Held