I started coaching college swimming in 2007, which means that I have now heard a decade of rumors started by jealous rivals about Texas Longhorns legend Eddie Reese retiring. In case you are living under a rock, Reese' team just won a third straight NCAA title in dominating fashion.
On my previous blog, I wrote a couple posts titled "Please Don't Retire" about veteran coaches who I wanted to stick around and keep kicking ass. The two subjects, Bob Groseth and Mark Bernardino, have done just that (each deserve their own post).
But whereas Bernardino has helped transform South Carolina into a distance swimming force and Groseth is perhaps the most influential coach you heard nothing about last year, Eddie Reese is just too much. His continued dominance at the college level is an existential threat to the rest of college coaches.
It appeared before this recent run that maybe the torch would be passed. Dave Durden and Cal were the new hot team. Then NC State was coming on like a freight train. Watch out for Alabama! Surely Eddie was on his last legs. Until he wasn't.
So, on behalf of the rest of college swimming, I'm making a please to the esteemed Coach Reese: please retire. You're creating a situation where coaches will be expected to be on top of their game into their mid 70s! You're crushing the dreams of multiple generations of younger coaches, and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight.
If you don't, rivals will have to suffer another agonizing year. They'll have to look into recruits eyes and tell them this next will have to be your last. The ten coaches who could get the Texas job plus the other ten who think they could get the Texas job will have to spend another year working somewhere else trying to set themselves up well enough to get the Texas job.
Won't you think of the children? Please?