The International Swimming League (ISL) rosters for each team continue to change and grow with the inaugural season’s first meet now just 2 weeks away. For instance, British Olympian Hannah Miley was just added to the Aqua Centurions’ lineup, while Italy’s Piero Codia announced his departure from the squad.
Coaching staff announcements have also been trickling in. Just this week London Roar revealed its stacked coaching ensemble, one that includes Balazs Virth, Fred Vergnoux, Peter Bishop, Melanie Marshall, and David Lush.
That leads us to inquire what role the ISL coaches will actually play, with each squad carrying a diverse mix of athletes from different nations, training regimens and coaching styles.
London Roar general manager Rob Woodhouse shared his insight into what the general responsibilities for coaches will be within the ISL, at least for his team. Woodhouse told SwimSwam that, “the coaches will have the final say on the selection of who swims each event.
“They will also run the training sessions for the team which with 28 swimmers at each meet is a challenge in itself with them coming from so many different programs. The coaches will also select the relays and have been involved in the recruitment process for the team.”
In terms of chain-of-command, Woodhouse confirmed that, “the coaches report through the GM, which, for London Roar, is myself.”
Additionally, coaches will “run the training sessions while the team is traveling together. They will also assist with non-relay lineup decisions.”
Here are the coaching staffs as we know them to be for the ISL squads at this time:
- Cali Condors – head coach Gregg Troy, assistants Dean Boxall and Jeff Julian
- LA Current – head coach David Marsh, assistants Brett Hawke, Jack Roach
- DC Trident – head coach Cyndi Gallagher, assistants Rachel Stratton-Mills and Stefanie Moreno
- New York Breakers – head coach Peter Andrew, assistant Wayne Riddin
- London Roar – Balazs Virth, Fred Vergnoux, Peter Bishop, Melanie Marshall, and David Lush
Okay, so they are going to be running 20-28 different workouts for each swimmer… okay. But we know they wont be writing them, just administering them. Also, it says coaches were involved in the recruitment process, which kind of makes sense since Dressel is swimming with the Troy team, and so forth… but if they were involved in recruitment, why did it take so long to announce who was coaching what team? I assume the Marsh coached team has a lot of former MAC elite swimmers on it, correct?
Does it matter? The only worry for ISL teams is if Frederica decides to lure the better looking males into her lioness quarters under the stadium .