The St. Bonaventure women’s swimming & diving team hopes to make a splash this season under new head coach Brian Thomas.
Thomas joins Bonaventure from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he was the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, according to gobonnies.com.
“I started in May, so when I started, after a couple weeks the kids went home,” said Thomas. “I had three and a half months to get prepared and to lay the foundation of what I wanted to achieve when they got here in terms of our training plan and fundraising and obviously recruiting pretty hard.”
Thomas has experience recruiting good swimmers to the programs he has worked at for previously. Thomas worked as the recruiting coordinator for the University of Western Kentucky, during which the 2012 men’s class was ranked 22nd in the nation by collegeswimming.com.
Senior freestyler Maggie Woods said that since Thomas has arrived, the team has seen some changes in how it trains.
“Our training is very individualized, so rarely are we all doing the same workout,” said Woods. “Our lifting in the weight room has increased, and we spend a lot more time focusing in on the technical side of swimming.”
Thomas said he hopes the new training he is using for the team makes them not just better, but uniquely better.
“I think the training program is vastly different than what they’re used to, and in addition, we’re doing some things that will hopefully set us apart from some of the other programs that we compete against,” said Thomas. “We’ve streamlined our strength and conditioning, and we’ve gotten active with our alumni in terms of fundraising. I’m just trying to put the odds in our favor of swimming fast and having success at the conference level.”
There are goals for each swimmer, and for the team overall, as well as recruitment goals, said Thomas, but he doesn’t impart that on the athletes and bury them with expectations.
“I always tell to the girls to take a day-by-day approach and to be as good as they can be on that particular day,” said Thomas. “Our sport requires consistency, and we usually see success from swimmers who are consistently great in practice. I want them all to focus on the process, and I think that they’ll really like the results.”
Thomas said it is important when bringing in new recruits for the team that they can fit in his vision for the program, and the team continues to get along well.
“When I started here, we had a really great chemistry among our team, and we still do, and that’s something that is really important to maintain,” said Thomas. “Through the recruiting process, we want to make sure we’re bringing in really good people and putting them in an environment where success is pretty much inevitable.”
Thomas said he wants to continue to improve the program, and the new blocks are a part of that, since they make the Reilly Center a better place to compete.
“We’re fortunate here to have everything we need, but I think our goals going forward involve putting ourselves ahead of who we compete against in the A10,” said Thomas. “Certainly the starting blocks are a good example. If you go to any other pool in the Atlantic 10, you’re not going to find anything better.”
signorra15@bonaventure.edu
