As the collegiate school year (and swim year) begins for the 2015-16 season, a new club has been announced which will operate out of the Arizona State University pool. This club is called Pitchfork Aquatics, and according to its website, it will open registration as soon as September 1st, once it finalizes its “…coaching staff, and rental agreement with ASU.” According to the team site, it has already been approved as a USA Swimming year-round club team.
Read below the full statement made on August 7th on the Pitchfork Aquatics website, regarding the team’s vision and values:
The three Pitchfork prongs represent our core values of safety, fitness, and performance.
For Safety, we provide a learn to swim program for people of all ages, backgrounds, and economic status. We offer a low stress and fun learning environment, multiple entry levels, flexible hours, and easy payment schedules to accommodate your family budget and busy life.
For Fitness, we provide an opportunity for children in a developmental setting to swim, train, and/or compete at their desired level.
For Performance, we provide a range from the traditional year round swim club team environment to post graduate and professional level training and competition.
For all programs, our experienced board members, coaches and instructors represent the best that have taught, coached and competed at the local, National and Olympic level. We utilize proven curriculum and techniques that produces results at all levels in and out of the pool.
We are a non profit club run by a Board of Directors from the local community. All club members and parents are encouraged to become involved in team activities and fundraisers.
We reported earlier today about some final renovations to the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center on ASU’s campus, and we know that Bob Bowman has already arrived to begin his coaching in Tempe, along with some of his Olympic-hopefuls group. It is unknown, currently, whether or not this elite group will be a part of Pitchfork or compete under the Pitchfork banner, but Bowman will be running Pitchfork regardless.
Notably, this is the birth of a club in a pool that hasn’t had a club operating since Sun Devil Aquatics left the ASU pool in late 2013 to merge with the Mesa Aquatics Club. That merge, of course, occurred after the sex abuse scandal involving former Sun Devil Aquatics coach Greg Winslow. Once the coach at the University of Utah, Winslow dragged himself and other entities into a legal firestorm with a multitude of complications that made its way to national television after he was accused of sexually abusing one of his swimmers, Whitney Lopus, at Sun Devil Aquatics.
With its darker days in the past, the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center has been void of club swimming since the departure of Sun Devil, and now Pitchfork Aquatics will try to set a new standard of excellence in Tempe for club swimming.
Reminds me of Wood’s painting of male and female farmer standing together with a pitchfork! Could have MP and Schmidt be models! 🙂
Sun devil has a three prong pitch fork in art work.
Ahh, I believe that is a trident, not a pitchfork; a pitchfork had 4 tines, which are curved. But I think there is already a team called Trident.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitchfork
Pitchforks typically have only two, three or four tines while dung forks have four or five, other types of fork even up to ten tines with different lengths and spacing depending on purpose.
article reminds me that we were slated to interview Winslow about 8-9 years ago and he cancelled his flight at the last minute. Whew!! that was close