While swim meets and practices are largely on hold worldwide right now due to the effects of COVID-19, BSN Sports still wants to highlight and celebrate swim teams from around the country. This week, we’re taking a look at the Long Island University Sharks, a Division I program in New York. While LIU has had a women’s team for years, it’s notable that the school is also adding a men’s team, which is slated to start competing in the 2020-2021 school year.
Matthew Donovan has been the head coach at LIU for the past four seasons. During his tenure, the Sharks have excelled in and out of the pool, setting conference records and also compiling the 4th-highest GPA in Division I women’s swimming. BSN Sports Team Ambassador Jessica Hardy spoke with Donovan to get some of his thoughts on LIU and coaching in general.
Donovan describes his coaching philosophy simply as, “how can I help a young person grow as much as possible in and out of the pool through the sport of competitive swimming.” He cites his Bristol Eastern High School coach, Joe Coverty, Keene State College coach, Gene Leonard, and Dr. Dave Salo at Trojan Swim Club, as three coaches who have had a great influence on his development as a person and a coach.
Those three coaches have shaped Donovan’s approach to coaching, one that helps swimmers get faster in the pool, but also sets them up for success outside of the pool as well.
This is something we do right from day one until the last day that they leave the program. I always say ‘it’s not my name on that heat sheet. It’s your swimming career, not mine’. Each swimmer in our program picks their own events, they pick which practice group they want to train in. They determine their own success. I am a big fan of Coach Salo’s “X,Y,Z” sets. We do things like that a lot on our team. We talk a lot about not being interval driven. You should go fast because its the right thing to do, not because the clock told you to do so. I think that translates into life. Do the right thing, because its the right thing, not because a third party told you to do so. I only have two rules. Be on time and give 100%. If you do those two things, there is no way you can be anything but successful in this world.
Obviously, the shutdowns brought about by COVID-19 have impacted the Sharks just like every other team, so we asked Donovan what sort of advice he was giving his swimmers during this time where he doesn’t get to see them face-to-face.
The most important thing right now is to stay connected. Stay connected with your studies. Stay connected with your family. Stay connected with your teammates & coaches (past and present). And find time to reach out to that one person that you haven’t heard from in a while. You never know how much a simple phone call can change someones’ whole mindset. And CALL don’t text. It means so much more to hear a friendly voice in a time of need.
Donovan has been coaching since the early 2000s, at the high school, club, and college levels, and with that time on deck comes a lot of great memories, enough that he had trouble narrowing it down to one particular favorite.
Favorite coaching memory is always a tough one. So many great races come to mind and seeing someone do something great that they never thought they could do. I am at a stage in my career now where many of my former athletes are adults now and have families of their own. My favorite moments are when they pick up the phone to call me just to say hello or when they invite me to their weddings or baby showers. Its always a great reunion for all of the swimmers from that era. It means the world to me that all these years later they still seek me out for advice and in some way still want me to be a part of their lives.
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