Chris DeSantis
Critiques Hurt When They Ring True

If you coach, then you will not be able to avoid making critiques. Even in the world of Positive Psychology, where there is intentional focus on feedback that is additive and future looking, there will always be advice on what not to do.

Chris DeSantis
What is the Value of Narcissism?

As we grow older, we learn to become self-conscious about being observed. I don’t work directly with younger kids, but having kids myself has reminded me of how well we learn to hide our feelings and thoughts as we grow older.

Chris DeSantis
Election Reflection

I can’t remember when I first heard the phrase “voting against their own interest”. I believe that politics are incepted at a formative age, such that unless you have some dramatic reversal in your adult life it is hard to know where things began.

Chris DeSantis
Something is Better Than Nothing

Which brings me to the topic of today’s blog. It’s wonderful to know what is ideal. What you would do if you could isolate one variable in your life? Decisions never actually fall so neatly where you can simply elect to do the optimal thing.

Chris DeSantis
USA Swimming Hiring Backwards

What does strike me as strange is that before this announcement USA Swimming had three crucial roles they were hiring for. One is the CEO, with Tim Hinchey’s long awaited sacking. Then there is the National Team Director who will oversee that entirety of the “wet” side of the operation. Finally there is the National Junior Team coach.

notserious

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Dear Eddie Reese: Please Retire

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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?