Coach and Swimmer Quick Quotes – 2015 Women’s NCAA DI Swimming and Diving Championships

Coaches Opening Statements

Jack Bauerle, Georgia
“It’s an anything-goes championship.”
“Faster up top, and way deeper top 16.”
“To make top 16 will be very challenging.”

Teri McKeever, California
“It’s very rare in this stage of my coaching career that no one on my team…my team that’s here or anyone on the coaching staff has been to Greensboro. It’s pretty rare that we get to come to somewhere new.”
“The Bears are ready.”

Braden Holloway, NC State
“Excited to be the host team for this event, Greensboro has treated us well”
“There is a good fan base here and a great atmosphere.”
“Greensboro puts on a show, they take pride in their tournaments; every time we’re here they treat us awesome.”
“It’s a fast facility and I think a lot of teams will find that out.”

Greg Meehan, Stanford
“No better meet than the NCAA championship.”
“It is humbling to be here.”
“The staff at the facility has been great this week- they’ve really made our team feel welcome.”

Augie Busch, Virginia
“It is an honor to be sitting with several Olympic coaches, many times over.”
“Very excited for what the staff here at Greensboro will put on for us.”
“Our conference (ACC) is experiencing a growth spurt in the sport of swimming and diving.”

Questions and Answers

On Georgia as defending champions, and if there is a target on their backs?
Augie Busch: “You can only control the energy and focus and vision in front of you.” “Don’t put energy into what you can’t control.”
“Jack has done an incredible job bringing Georgia to what it is today.”
“I prefer not to focus my attention on him or any other team in the peripheral.”

Greg Meehan: “Control the controllables.”
“We’ve prepared ourselves to take care of our own business.”
“We get to dictate our own level of success.”

Teri McKeever: “The journey to the top is very exciting and challenging and a rewarding journey. I am most impressed personally with people who have the ability to stay at the top when others are bringing their best game, whether it be a team or individual and that’s why I have so much respect for Jack [Bauerle] and other programs and other coaches that have done that. And I am hoping, that’s my goal as a coach, my goal as a program is to be relevant as a program and be part of the conversation year in and year out.”

Teri McKeever on switching Missy and Elizabeth Pelton’s events for this meet.
“If you are fortunate enough to work with women who can be successful at the highest level with different events that gives you more opportunities as a coach and I think it gives them more opportunities to challenge themselves. Some of the decisions for Missy are not only in the best interest of the program, but in the best interest of herself. And I would say particularly for Elizabeth there have been some discussions of decisions in her best interest so she grows as an individual athlete that are between Elizabeth and I.”

Teri McKeever on Missy Franklin’s career
“When you’re fortunate enough to have an athlete of that stature on your team it brings an awareness to the sport and campus and program that I’m very appreciate of.”
“This group of women will give her the greatest gift anyone could ever give her.”

Athletes Opening Statements

Missy Franklin, California
“I am so excited, this is obviously a little different for me, this is my last collegiate meet as many of you know. I couldn’t be more excited to be here with my girls. I’m so grateful and so blessed for the last two years. I think about not having this experience and I honestly can’t imagine where I would be.”
“It really has changed my life forever.”

Amber McDermott, Georgia
“This is my last collegiate meet, I’m really thankful to be here.”
“Greensboro is an awesome place to be for my last meet, the facility is great and so far I’ve had a good experience.”

Jessica Parratto, Indiana
“I have 1-meter, and 3-meter, and Platform to compete; I’m not used to that. I’m usually a platform diver so the springboard is a little different for me. I’m excited to be here.”

Emma Reaney, Notre Dame
“I haven’t even come to terms with it” (Last collegiate meet)
“Up until a week ago, I thought I was going to be the only girl here from Notre Dame, but then we had a second alternate slip in and then a diver make it, and they’re both seniors so to be able to share my last collegiate meet with two girls from my class is really special.”

Simone Manuel, Stanford
“I am going to try to soak up all of the memories with my teammates.”

Questions and Answers

Missy Franklin on her collegiate career
“The memories I’ve been able to make have really just been incredible.”
“I’m so excited for the next couple days to make so many more memories. I’ve grown as a person, I’ve grown as an athlete and I’m just so grateful for the opportunities and the challenges I’ve had to help me do that.”
“Looking forward, I’m looking towards the next 3 days. That’s what I’ve been working for the past two years and this is what it’s about right now. It’s what my team deserves and it’s what I deserve to be right here right now and enjoy every second of it.”

Emma Reaney on the pressure coming back after breaking NCAA record last year in 200 breast
“I feel pretty good. That swim, it didn’t necessarily come out of nowhere but I think I surprised myself.”

Missy Franklin on memorable moments in college
“For some reason, the one thing that is popping into my mind is finals week last winter. And our whole team, you would think that we’d get sick of each other after spending so much time together but we would all just take over this room in Doe library and study there for eight hours a day and be running off of coffee and cornbread and I’m sitting there and going through all of my notes and I looked up and it was just one of those moments where you sit back and I’m in this beautiful library on the best campus in the world surrounded by my best friends, my teammates, and people that I’m going to have in my life forever and just watching them study watching them listen to music and just thinking about the times I’ve been able to share with them and I feel as loved and as close to them sitting in the library studying for finals as I do after we win a relay or lose a relay and being able to share that with someone is a really special thing.”

College Swimming News is courtesy of the NCAA & the ACC’s GEORGE LANE.