During our visit with the Sarasota sharks, we sat down with head coach Brent Arckey to discuss how he’s built this club into the top-tier team it is today. Arckey gives credit to his predecessors and the families that make up the Sharks, saying it has been a team effort since he started at Sarasota.
The Sharks produced an Olympic medalist in Emma Weyant (silver, 400 IM) in 2021. Weyant had trained with the sharks since her early days as a swimmer and while she is now in college, her sisters, Gracie and Ava, still train with Sarasota.
Sarasota is now home to 2x world champion and recently 2x world-record-breaker Summer McIntosh. McIntosh trained with the Sharks for a couple months during the COVID pandemic and ultimately decided to come back and make it her permanent training base heading into the 2023 World Championships and 2024 Olympic Games.
Arckey’s goal as head coach is to make it an inclusive space where swimmers of any level, from international medalists to high school participants to 80-year-old masters swimmers, have a place to train.
Some people will get faster in his program, others won’t 🤷♀️
You can say that about literally any team for any sport. Some improve, some don’t. That’s just how it is.
Who even are you
Ira Klein has joined the chat!
What a joke the culture on this team from the coaches side has gone down ever since Coach Brown and Coach Watts left
Bro wants to be different.
As someone who has ACTUALLY swam for Steve, Sherwood and Brent I can attest that the culture has remained consistent, FTT. A tradition of excellence, hard work and humility.
I swam for all of them too and when Brent took over the FTT went away
This is absolutely amazing. Thank you Brent – its so important for swimmers to feel like they belong to a community. The benefits of being part of a team – a community – a place where they can get better physically or mentally is for everyone, not just for those that go to the Olympics.
Thank you coach Brent….thank you Brown, coach Mark, coach John, coach Terry…hats down coach Watts.