Swimming Lessons
Big Green aquatic teams may have survived extinction five years ago, but they re still feeling the effects of the financial fiasco.
WHILE DARTMOUTH SWIMMERS AND DIVERS HAD A greatyear in the classroom, earning the No. 1 Academic All America team ranking in Division 1 for mens and women's combined GPAs, the aquatic teams had a dismal 2006-07 season in the water. The men finished last, the women next to last, in their division.
Nonetheless Zoe Bisk '08, a freestyle swimmer from Washington, describes last season as "excellent" while Doug Nelson '10, a swimmer from Illinois, says, "The team is looking up." These swimmers are not delusional. Their experience with the Dartmouth swimming and diving program has taught them that everything is relative.
"I think it's more important to look at internal improvement rather than external success," Nelson says. He may be an optimist, but he has a point.
Five years ago, for 45 days between November 2002 and January 2003, the swim program was fated to die as the athletic department s sacrifice to campus-wide budget cuts. Athletic director Josie Harper was told she needed to cut about $400,000 from the athletics budget. She faced a tough decision: either skim $10,000 from each team's budget or cut one program entirely.
"Some programs' operational budgets are 20 to 25 grand, so cutting 10 grand from each program would have been a slow death for lots of teams, Harper says. Sol made the recommendation to eliminate one program instead.
On the Monday morning before Thanksgiving, Harper and other administrators notified the swimmers and coaches that the 2002-03 season would be their last.
Harper says she had expected "outrage"—and that's what she got.
First came the meeting in Collis, where several hundred students gathered at midnight on the day of the announcement. Then came the march to President Jim Wright's house, then on to Parkhurst, and the (temporary) auctioning of the team on eBay. Students petitioned the Student Assembly. Parents formed committees. Someone made shirts that read: "I am a Dartmouth budget cut." Swimmers went from dorm room to dorm room gathering support. They handed out pamphlets outside an Alumni Council meeting. They met with deans and Wright.
Ronald Keenhold, who coached swimming and diving at Dartmouth for 38 years (1961-1999), sought support from alumni swimming and diving veterans. Former swimmers Steve Mullins '54, Thomas Kelsey '54 and John Ballard '55 established the John Glover '55 Fund (named after a former teammate) to help support the swim program for the next 10 years. Together, swimmers, parents, former coaches and alums raised helland several million dollars.
Finally, in January 2003, just before the lame-duck teams headed to compete in a meet at Middlebury, Harper and Dean of the College James Larimore told swimmers the decision to cut the program had been reversed.
"The mens team went up to Middlebury that day and set 14 new pool records, and a lot of them still stand," recalls Jim Wilson, then the mens head coach and now the coach of both men and women.
Backstroker Pricilla Zee '04 was devastated astated when she first learned of the cuts. She "hysterically cried" after the initial shock wore off. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, though, Zee and her teammates protested the decision as adults. On the day they stormed Parkhurst someone shoved a megaphone in Zee's hand and told her to speak to the crowd.
"I started talking to people about what happened, how we were treated, how our coaches' jobs were treated, how our future Dartmouth family was treated," Zee recalls.
Joann Brislin, then coach of the women's swimming and diving team, believes the program cut in general, and the megaphone incident specifically, to be turning points in Zee's life. "She learned that day that she could be strong, that she could be articulate, that she could remain polite and gracious in the process. Shes very successful today as a young businesswoman because of those things, Brislin says of Zee, who manages a Pillsbury division for General Mills.
"That was the best out-of-classroom experience I could have asked for, Zee says.
Many students report feeling a renewed sense of pride in their team and overwhelming gratitude that they were able to swim at Dartmouth at all. "We felt that this was a privilege, and we were lucky to have this opportunity to compete for Dartmouth," says freestyler (and last year's team captain) Melissa Kern '07.
"I think the kids learned a lot about themselves," says Harper.
Pride, gratitude and growth aside, the 45-day cut had negative effects that still linger. Recruiting, for instance, took a serious hit.
When the cut was announced a number of recruits for the class of 2007 were waiting to hear if they had been accepted to Dartmouth early decision. After the announcement Coach Wilson had to contact all Dartmouth swimming hopefuls to break the bad news.
It was devastating to the class of 2007. There were only four '07s on the teams last year. Evan Sparks '07, a diver from Pennsylvania, was one of them. I found out about the cut the night before I submitted my Dartmouth application," Sparks says. "I nearly didn't submit it, but decided that there was a possibility that the program might come back. While the program was cut I discounted Dartmouth as an option."
Sparks differs from numerous other recruits from his year in that Dartmouth became his first choice again once the team was reinstated.
Four recruits for the class of 2007 ultimately ended up at other Ivy schools. "They've scored a number of points throughout the past four years," Wilson says. "It hurt a ton."
Poor recruiting one year leads to poor performance the next, which leads to difficulty recruiting the following year. And so on. There are also the recruits who fear the program could be cut again and those who question how much the program is valued.
"It's harder to recruit fast swimmers when they see a weaker team,' Christopher Koppel '09 says.
"Many recruitable athletes wouldn't even give us the time of day," Wilson says.
The situation has not been equally bleak for both the men's and women's teams, however. The women may have finished second-to-last in the 2007 EISL Championships, but that's one spot better than their 2006 finish. They scored 100 points more than the year before and broke 10 out of 20 school records in the process. Brislin attributes the improvement in part to the caliber of recent recruits. "Every year since the cut women's varsity records have gotten faster and new times have gone into the all-time top 10, she says.
"I think the women weren't as concerned about the competitiveness of the programs as the men were, so I think its been more of an uphill battle for the men, Wilson says. Brislin agrees with Wilson's assessment.
Wilson says things are improving. He now has two full-time assistants. The pool area was spruced up recently with the rest of Alumni Gym. Recruited swimmers from the incoming class of 2011 should improve team performance. The renewed sense of gratitude that the teammates felt upon the teams' reinstatement still holds. And, thanks to the many generous donations during the period of crisis, the John Glover Fund will continue to support the program for the next three to four years, after which the College will again support the program, according to Harper.
Wilson, while positive about the future, is getting tired of talking about the whole affair. "We had a good outcome, it was a great life lesson for everyone," Wilson says. "But I wish it had never happened."
Fast Lane BreaststrokerMeredith Blank '1Oapplied early in spite ofthe swim team's history.
It's harder to recruit swimmers when they see a weaker team.
CAROLYN KYLSTRA is a DAM internmajoring in history. She is from Chapel HillNorth Carolina.
