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Reprinted
courtesy of the
Poughkeepsie Journal
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Marist Swim Club celebrating 25th anniversary
By Nancy Haggerty
For the
Poughkeepsie Journal
The old-time swimmers remember other things: Groggy parents and
daily pre-dawn weekday practices. Thousands of laps. Weekend trips
here, there and everywhere. The unique bond that develops when a
sport is largely individual but the effort is collective and
experiences are shared.
Larry VanWagner remembers first the big hole in the ground on
the
Marist
College campus. To him, it contained
an ocean of possibilities.
But even at his most optimistic, he didn't foresee the 150
Metropolitan Junior Olympic Swimming champions, 80 Metropolitan
Senior Swimming champs, 74 Empire State Games champs, 45 Division I
competitors, two national team members, six individuals ranked among
the top 100 in the world, one U.S. Olympic Sports Festival champion,
and nine U.S. Olympic swimming trial qualifiers.
Marist Swim Club has unique family flair Marking its 25th year, the
Marist Swim Club indeed has a lot to celebrate. ''No other program
has put athletes at Olympic trials on a semi-consistent basis,''
said
Lloyd Goldstein, a past club member and longtime club coach
under VanWagner. ''I couldn't name another sports organization or
program as successful as we have been. This is one of the best
programs on the East Coast.''
''Larry VanWagner really was the first person who brought
national-type swimming to
Dutchess
County ,'' said Our Lady of Lourdes
High School graduate Dr. Kathleen Latino, who swam with the club for
three years, starting in 1977, and today is a urologist in
Rockland
County .
The club, which runs September to September, with swimmers given
only a couple weeks off in March and in late August, now averages 70
to 75 members a year. VanWagner estimates 700 to 900 people have
belonged.
Save for having an actual Olympian, its crown is full. While
VanWagner, the director and head coach of the club, thinks an
Olympian will eventually happen and admits to ''selfish'' dreams of
watching one of his swimmers walk to the blocks for an Olympic
final, that's never been his focus.
''We've risen to the second highest rung,'' VanWagner, 50, said
recently. ''That's a lot higher than most coaches climb. I never
dreamed that 25 years ago.''
''The idea was to service the competitive needs of the community,''
he explained. ''My motivation was very superficial -- to provide a
swimming program to families and athletes of the
Hudson
Valley so athletes could realize
their full potential.''
VanWagner, a native of Dutchess
County , who swam for
Springfield (
Mass. ) College, was hired as aquatic
director at Marist
College in 1976, while the
McCann
Center , which houses the pool, was
still under construction. He arranged to take over coaching of the
Poughkeepsie YWCA program, which was outgrowing that facility. Since
the McCann Foundation stipulated the athletic center be made
available to the community, VanWagner, along with John Horgan and
Paul Chan, fathers of YWCA swimmers, subsequently proposed creation
of the swim club to provide year-round, age-group competition.
The community would benefit from the team and, in turn, the college
would benefit, with the club's name attracting swimmers to the
college team VanWagner planned to create.
With support from the Marist administration, the club came into
being in April 1977. VanWagner started a college club team the
following fall and turned it into a varsity co-ed team two years
later before individual men's and women's teams at the college were
subsequently formed.
VanWagner has earned recognition coaching the
Marist
College men's team, which is enjoying
increasing success. But it is through the club that he has earned a
national name.
''It's not a glorious sport,'' Goldstein said. ''You don't get your
name in the paper every other week and you're not going to retire
rich.''
But still the kids keep showing up, as does VanWagner, who may
reduce his club hours during his upcoming college coaching season,
but plans to remain as club director and as a summer coach.
''I think we've gotten away from the true meaning of athletics,''
VanWagner said.
''It's not about awards and self-aggrandizement. I'm very happy
this is not a pro sport. I don't think they exhibit the real meaning
of athletics. That's right here,'' he said, nodding at his pool,
where two of his swimmers were doing laps.
''I love swimming, coaching, teaching,'' VanWagner added. ''That's
why I'm here early every day.''
''I think it will still be going strong 25 years from now,''
Goldstein said.
PROFILE
MARIST SWIM CLUB
Founded: April 1977
Director/Head coach: Larry VanWagner
President: Christine Berg
Current enrollment: 70-75
National governing body: USA
Swimming
Logging on: www.maristswimclub.com
For more info: (845) 575-3699, ext. 2321
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Wednesday, July 24, 2002
VanWagner's leadership triggers success
Coach's demands bring out the best
By Nancy Haggerty
For the
Poughkeepsie Journal
Marist Swim Club director and head coach
Larry VanWagner has demanded nothing short of full commitment
from his swimmers. The current club consists of youths 5 to 21 years
of age. While the youngest members swim no more than three times a
week for an hour each session, practices become more difficult and
frequent as swimmers progress. The senior squad, consisting of those
12 and up, practices 15 hours a week and 80 percent attendance is
required during a calendar year.
About the age of 13, swimmers are asked to drop all other sports.
While after-school workouts are no longer coupled with daily
5 a.m.
sessions because the advent of more two-income households has caused
transportation problems, sessions are still arduous and include
out-of-pool muscle and cardiovascular work.
''(VanWagner) has a parents' meeting every September and he's very
blunt about his philosophy,'' said Christine Berg, three-year club
president, whose three children swim in the program. ''(He says),
'There are plenty of other teams. This is a program. You go from one
step to another.' ''
Berg's daughter, Corey, survived the workouts and climbed the
ladder, earning a scholarship to the University of Virginia this
fall with a resume that includes a Junior National title in '97,
membership on last year's U.S. National Team, and a trip to the U.S.
Olympic trials in 2000.
''He was constantly trying to kill us, absolutely,'' Alecia
Humphrey said of VanWagner with a laugh. ''There were times in high
school when I couldn't go to a dance or the movies and I said, 'This
is stupid. It's not worth it.' But that didn't last for long.
''I had success and the feeling of accomplishment. My friends in
high school did not have the same experiences. I was glad to have
them.''
Humphrey is one of the club's more storied athletes. Now 28, she
swam for the club from age 8 until 20, and remembers her first
workout including mandated sit-ups. Her success not only included a
scholarship to the University of Michigan, from which she graduated
in 1995, but All-America status, two national individual backstroke
championships and one national title in relay.
Additionally, she won a U.S. Olympic Sports Festival title (1990);
a Junior National championship (1991); was a member of the U.S.
Pan-Pacific Games team and World University Games team and went to
the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in both 1992 and '96.
''I think Larry really has the right perspective,'' said Humphrey,
whose brother, Stephen, also excelled and swam for Division I James
Madison. ''He's a wonderful person, encouraging, motivating. He's
dedicated so much of his life to the sport. He's an amazing man.''
PROFILE
Larry VanWagner
Age: 50
Family: Wife -- Ginny; sons -- John (19), Ryan (18), Andrew (14)
Residence:
Hopewell Junction
College:
Springfield
College
Occupation: Aquatic director/head men's swimming coach at
Marist
College in
Poughkeepsie
Hobbies: Golf
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Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Marist Swim Club has unique family flair
Team's alumni remember care, friendly feeling
By Nancy Haggerty
For the
Poughkeepsie Journal
Kristine Sheedy, a 1987 graduate of Roy
C. Ketcham
High School , swam with the Marist
Swim Club for eight years and, like her brother, Steve, went to the
University of
Arkansas on a swimming scholarship.
But to the 33-year-old who works for the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention in Atlanta
, her victories with the club don't seem to matter as much as how
they were achieved.
''Just all my fondest memories from childhood and my adolescent
years come from the experiences of swimming for the Marist Swim
Club,'' she said. ''Larry (VanWagner) had so much to do with that.
He was very strict but he was dedicated and he cared so much for
us.''
VanWagner is the director and head coach of the club, which is
celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Lloyd Goldstein, who became the youngest NCAA coach in the country
when he took over
Vassar
College 's swimming program after his
college career ended prematurely due to injury, swam as part of the
Marist club from 9 until he graduated from high school.
Leaving college early, he signed on as a coach under VanWagner and
at 35 is now the club's 8-12-year-old age group coach.
''First and foremost the team atmosphere was incredible (when I
competed),'' he said. ''It was nothing like I've come across. Older
kids were always there for younger kids. They'd go bowling Friday
night or Saturday after practice (or) would go to the movies, and
the younger kids were invited. There was camping at meets. It was
being part of a large family.''
And, indeed, from the get-go VanWagner, who is now the father of
three, intended for the club to be a family affair.
''It's a network of people responsible for the success -- athletes,
parents and coaches,'' he said. ''To realize our potential this
triangle has to be in place with open dialogue and support.''
That has meant parents not only being ready to offer rides to their
own children but to others. And it has meant parents going along on
overnight and weekend trips and taking lead roles in fundraisers.
''From the beginning of the club, he got parent involvement.
Without the parents driving, there never would have been a club,''
said Ann (Aronowitz) Potthast of Elmhurst, Illinois, one of three
Aronowitz siblings to swim in the program.
''You couldn't do what you did without everyone being involved. I
can't remember before or after a feeling of being so connected,''
Potthast said.
Christine Berg noted before her daughter, Corey, got her license
people asked her whether she had a cot at the
McCann
Center .
''One of the reasons my husband and I stay involved is we know the
sacrifices Larry is making with his own family to give our children
a wonderful experience,'' she said, terming VanWagner a trusted
''second father'' to Corey.
''It was our way of life,'' said Jane Whitman, who had two sons in
the program in the late '70s and early '80s, one of whom, Jeff,
attended
Arizona
State University
on a partial swimming scholarship and went on to compete while in
the Navy.
The Hyde Park resident recalled rising before 5 a.m., going to the
pool and returning home to cook a breakfast that would be consumed
en route to school.
That might not sound like fun, but the parents seem to have no
complaints.
''I don't regret it for a second,'' said Carol Humphrey, who was
involved with the club for about 17 years, five of those as its
president. ''The kids got a lot out of it. They made friends along
the way -- friends they'll have forever.''
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